What developers can build

Apps that fit the mesh are small and local. These are the categories we expect first.

• Menus, specials, and waitlists
• Reservations and appointment queues
• Fleet, delivery, and school transit dispatch
• Permits, notices, and municipal forms
• Neighborhood alerts and safety check-ins
• Loyalty and local rewards

Security and safeguard protocol

An open app ecosystem on a low-bandwidth radio band needs rules enforced at the edge, not a heavy cloud firewall. The NGTlink design uses three layers, each cheap enough to run on kitchen-table hardware, so the local cloud is a controlled civic asset and not an unmonitored radio band.

1. Layer 1

   Browser sandbox, data only over the air

   • Every app is a browser-native PWA, so the phone's operating system keeps it inside the browser sandbox with no access to root files or other apps.
   • The mesh carries small flat text and data payloads only. Compiled binaries, executables, and server-side scripts are not an allowed payload type, so there is nothing to execute on a node or relay.
2. Layer 2

   Signed manifests for app registration

   • An app registers its local path on a base station only if its manifest carries a valid platform or municipal signature, checked with an offline public/private key pair.
   • Anyone can build a PWA at home. Inside a mesh zone, base stations decline to route apps with a missing or invalid signature, which blocks counterfeit emergency apps and phishing tools.
   • The platform signing key is held offline by the NGTlink protocol operator. Keys can be revoked, and revoked manifests are dropped at the next registry sync.
3. Layer 3

   Rate limits and payload checks at the edge

   • Node firmware enforces a per-node-ID packet rate limit. A node that floods the channel has its priority score lowered until it stops, so QoS keeps emergency traffic moving.
   • Tier 3 Civic public internet packets are capped at 512 bytes. The edge gateway drops oversized packets and packets with disallowed characters before they enter the ground loops.

This describes the protocol design for the NGTlink pilot. Enforcement values such as the packet cap and per-node rate limits are set per deployment and verified during pilot testing, and the Folio-Pin website itself also ships standard security response headers.

Subscription and revenue architecture

A local cloud has to pay for itself. Paying subscribers fund the gateways, upkeep, and the free public lifeline, so the network does not depend on grants alone. Revenue is recurring and tied to physical infrastructure that stays in the community.

1. Paid

   Tier 1

   Commercial

   Main Street businesses, engineering firms, marine contractors, and maritime operators

   Monthly subscription per commercial location

   • Mounting priority for an active NGTlink gateway node on the property.
   • Access to localized Level 2 Tactical data tunnels.
   • Local cloud processing for private asset tracking and the company's own PWA tools.

   If a storm drops the cellular grid for days, a subscribed grocery store, boatyard, or engineering firm keeps local messaging, visual inventories, and operational data moving over the ground mesh.

2. Contract

   Tier 2

   Municipal

   Town and county governments, public safety agencies, and emergency planning committees

   Annual municipal infrastructure subscription contract

   • Encrypted access to the Tier 1 Vital Telemetry network layer.
   • Preemptive right-of-way for Beacon-Inertial Navigation (BIN) spatial tracking and first responder location vectors.
   • Secure inter-agency emergency messaging.

   A town pays a network subscription to use a self-healing ground mesh it controls locally, instead of depending only on a carrier contract for public safety traffic.

3. Free

   Tier 3

   Civic Lifeline

   The general public in a mesh zone

   Always free to residents

   • Basic, text-only access to the public data lifeline emitted during an emergency grid collapse.
   • Throttled and sandboxed by design. It cannot inject data into the system and uses no priority bandwidth.

   No resident is left blind or disconnected in a blackout, and the free tier protects public trust in the network.

Tier 1 and Tier 2 pricing is set per deployment and confirmed during the pilot. Tier 3 stays free and sandboxed under the security protocol above, and developer program subscriptions are separate from these network access tiers.