Thanks to a subsidiary of Alphabet, Google's parent company,
cities around the US could soon get a taste of what's popping up all over New
York City: screaming-fast, free Wi-Fi that radiates across the city from
hundreds of sidewalk kiosks.
The subsidiary, Sidewalk Labs, is led by former New York
City development official Dan Doctoroff and tends to boast about its ambitions
while keeping its specific plans fairly quiet. Its website, for instance,
compares its goal to transform cities with "digital technology" to
groundbreaking innovations like the steam locomotive, electricity, and the
automobile.
But thanks to Recode, which recently filed some public
records for marketing materials the company uses to pitch its ideas to city
governments, we now have a snapshot of its expansion plans. As it turns out,
its LinkNYC Wi-Fi kiosks in New York City are only the tip of the iceberg: the
company is marketing future iterations as "sensor platforms" that can
understand and measure traffic congestion, identify dangerous situations like
gas leaks, monitor air quality, and identify quality of life issues like idling
trucks.
Sidewalk Labs pitched Columbus, Ohio up to 100 kiosks in
four of its neighborhoods, Recode found. Each includes "data analytics
[that would allow Columbus to] better understand the urban environment via
environmental sensors and machine learning algorithms that integrate numerous
data sources," according to a marketing brochure.
The sensors could be used to spot unattended packages and
clogged drains, helping to prevent terrorism and infrastructure failures, the
documents show. Each kiosk would net Sidewalk Labs approximately $30,000 in
yearly digital advertising revenue.
Despite their high-tech innovations, though, the kiosks'
greatest contribution to improving city life might be their simplest: free
Wi-Fi. If you don't mind the ads, the speed offered is blindingly fast compared
to other free urban options like Starbucks or public libraries. The LinkNYC
kiosks PCMag tested earlier this year achieved an average 245Mbps for downloads
and 209Mbps for uploads.
Source: pcmag.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment