Totem's Unity Mesh Network™ Powers Three Ireland's 'Friend Finder' at Electric Picnic 2026 for Second Consecutive Year

The world's largest managed mesh network returns to Ireland with Three, the country's largest mobile operator, as Chattanooga-based Totem scales its offline communication technology onto a global stage—following a 2025 debut that drew nearly 26,000 entries from Three+ customers seeking access in 2026.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Totem, Inc., the U.S. technology company behind the Unity Mesh Network™—the world's largest managed mesh network—today announced that its offline communication technology will return to Electric Picnic in Ireland this week as the network powering Three Ireland's "Friend Finder," marking the second consecutive year the companies have partnered to give festivalgoers coverage in the most densely packed areas of the site and help them find each other in the crowd.

Following an overwhelmingly positive response to its 2025 debut, the Three Friend Finder, powered by Totem will return to Electric Picnic from August 28–30, 2026, running on an expanded and upgraded Unity Mesh Network deployment, with more devices available to Three+ customers throughout the weekend.

Large music festivals concentrate tens of thousands of people into a few hundred acres, creating density that no conventional network is built for. Even with strong connectivity, pinpointing one specific person inside a constantly moving crowd is a different problem entirely—moving between stages, navigating packed headline sets and coordinating meeting points can quickly turn a simple reunion into a prolonged search.

The Three Friend Finder solves that by putting a network in the crowd itself. Each device is a node: together they form a self-sustaining mesh that carries location data peer-to-peer, with no cell service or Wi-Fi required, combined with GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) positioning for 1–2 meter accuracy. The result is capacity that scales with crowd density rather than degrading in it, complementing the connectivity infrastructure Three provides across Electric Picnic and guiding users toward each other through a ring of pulsating lights.

That architecture is what Totem has been building at global scale. The Unity Mesh Network now spans more than 62,000 devices across 79 countries, and Electric Picnic represents one of its largest single-site managed deployments to date.

The partnership also marks a significant milestone in Totem's international expansion. Three Ireland is the country's largest mobile operator, serving approximately 5.4 million customers, and is part of CK Hutchison's 3 Group Europe, which counts more than 60 million registered mobile customers across its European markets. A telecommunications operator of that scale choosing to build a consumer offering on Totem's network validates offline mesh as infrastructure—not a novelty—and puts a Tennessee startup's technology in the hands of festivalgoers on a global stage.

“Even with the great connectivity that Three provides Electric Picnic attendees, finding a specific person in a huge, moving festival crowd is a different challenge,” said Carter Fowler, Founder & CEO of Totem. “That’s exactly what Totem’s technology was built for: giving people a simple, reliable way to pinpoint and find their friends within a busy festival environment. We loved seeing the Friend Finder come to life at Electric Picnic last year, and we’re excited to work with the forward-thinking team at Three to bring it to even more festivalgoers in 2026.”

“Following the fantastic response to the Three Friend Finder at Electric Picnic last year, we're delighted to bring it back for 2026 and make even more devices available to our Three+ customers,” said Tanya Townsend, Senior Brand and Sponsorship Activation Manager at Three Ireland. “The incredible response to our latest Three+ competition, with almost 26,000 entries in just 22 days, shows the appetite among Irish festivalgoers for experiences that make their festival weekend easier and more enjoyable. It's a great example of how technology can solve a genuine challenge for festivalgoers, helping friends reconnect quickly so they can spend less time searching and more time enjoying the festival together.”

The partnership represents a growing international use case for Totem beyond direct-to-consumer sales, demonstrating how the company's network can be licensed and adapted by telecommunications companies, festival operators and other major brands to deliver customized location and connectivity experiences in high-density environments where traditional infrastructure is stretched to its limits.

About Totem:

Totem, Inc. is a Tennessee-based technology company building the world’s largest self-sustaining communication network. Since launching the Totem Compass in 2024, the company has grown to more than 62,000 users across 79 countries, building a global community around technology designed to keep people connected without relying on traditional communications infrastructure.