Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Verizon Is Moving From Telephone Poles To Light Poles for Smart Devices (fortune.com)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the further-expansion dept.

An anonymous reader shares a Fortune report:Verizon is moving from telephone poles to street lighting poles with its latest acquisition to bolster its Internet of things business. The telecom giant has been looking for new growth areas around connected smart devices -- including water meters, self-driving cars, and drones -- as some of its traditional markets slow. On Monday, Verizon said it was buying privately-held Sensity, a company that puts sensors in LED street lamps to perform functions such as monitoring traffic and detecting security threats. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed. It's the latest in a string of acquisitions to bolster the carrier's IoT unit. Verizon agreed to pay $2.4 billion for truck tracking service Fleetmatics last month and startup Telogis, another fleet-tracker, earlier this summer.

22 comments

  1. Communities should negotaite for free Wi-Fi by jellomizer · · Score: 1

    Being that Version is going to the Last Mile to internet connect all these devices. They might as well offer free Wi-Fi on those as a "Value Add"

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    1. Re:Communities should negotaite for free Wi-Fi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why free when they can get people to pay for the service as they drive. No satellite subscription required just wifi jump every hotspot as you drive. Connection notices would be spammy as hell and only a moron would trust every network. Gotta give it a snazzy name like HiFi oh wait that's taken. If you lived near a highway you wouldn't even need to wardrive anymore new wifi networks come to you! In Soviet Russia wifi comes to you... how sad would it be that this becomes true in the US?

  2. Die, IoT, die! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    a company that puts sensors in LED street lamps to perform functions such as monitoring traffic and detecting security threats.

    Where "sensors" means "cameras", and "monitoring traffing and detecting security threats" means "watching everyone and everything". And the image feeds will probably have license-plate reading and face recognition thrown in, or could with the next software upgrade.

    And since it's a corporation doing it (Verizon) vs a government agency, warrants etc don't enter into it. (No expectation of privacy within view of a streetlight anyway, right?). Until NSA/FBI/etc asks Verizon nicely for their data (no warrant required, they're just asking -- or perhaps buying.)

    Five years ago this would have sounded like something from the tin-foil-hat brigade. Now? Not so much.

    1. Re:Die, IoT, die! by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      It would be pretty slick if they could detect when a person or vehicle was in range of the streetlight, and turn the light off when not needed. That would save an enormous amount of power if deployed on millions of lights. Astronomers would also love the idea. The justification for street lights is that they improve safety and reduce crime, but there is little evidence that they are effective at either.

    2. Re:Die, IoT, die! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or even just local revenue enhancement. Read plate numbers from successive light pole cams, calculate speed based on time and distance between poles, and mail out the traffic tickets....

    3. Re:Die, IoT, die! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It would be pretty slick if they could detect when a person or vehicle was in range of the streetlight, and turn the light off when not needed. That would save an enormous amount of power if deployed on millions of lights. Astronomers would also love the idea. The justification for street lights is that they improve safety and reduce crime, but there is little evidence that they are effective at either.

      Not so sure if I would want the light outside my house turning on and off all night.

    4. Re:Die, IoT, die! by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

      the tollways do not do that.

    5. Re:Die, IoT, die! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Different authorities, and besides, you're already paying the toll. Sending out speeding tickets might cut into tollway usage.

      I can think of a couple of local municipalities that would fall over themselves to do this, they already have red-light cams at pretty much every light-controlled intersection, and aren't afraid to use them. (2AM, right turn on a red after slowing to ~1mph instead of a dead stop, and they send out a ticket? Come on...)

    6. Re:Die, IoT, die! by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Not so sure if I would want the light outside my house turning on and off all night.

      Try closing the curtain.

    7. Re:Die, IoT, die! by markdavis · · Score: 2

      >"Not so sure if I would want the light outside my house turning on and off all night."

      Me neither. So, imagine what driving would be with lights that turn on only when you are close enough THEY could see you. It would be a mess. And how would they "see" pedestrians and bikes at night, accurately?

      I think just having them be a lot more efficient and aimed properly (designed for proper light dispersion only where it is needed) would do what we need to save tons of energy while generating less glare and light pollution. Also, I don't think they really need to be anywhere near as bright as they typically are... and if they were a proper color, that might help things too (that horrible, sick, orange color of sodium lights and anemic green/blue of mercury vapor lights really doesn't help).

    8. Re:Die, IoT, die! by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      The cameras in street lamps or traffic lights now are extremely low resolution, just good enough to keep track of traffic. In many cases there were put up before there was a way to get the information back out again at anything but low bit rates. I'm in a business that deals with street light controllers and they're not for spying and would be amazingly expensive to do so as high speed networking isn't there. Sure you can be like Verizon and use cellular to get the data back but they're not giving you the sim cards for free.

      Someone could of course add real spy cameras but that's separate and distinct from IoT.

    9. Re:Die, IoT, die! by bsdewhurst · · Score: 1

      Already done. Auckland, New Zealand is busy installing these at the moment. The existing mostly sodium bulb fittings are being replaced with LED fittings, on the quieter streets the lights will be equiped with motion sensors that will turn on the lights for the whole when they detect a car.

      30% of all streetlights are being replaced over a 3 year period. Total cost for the project -$20 million, yes negative, the savings in electricity move than covers the cost of replacing the lights.

    10. Re:Die, IoT, die! by Rhipf · · Score: 1

      Actually just going to LED street lights eliminates a lot of light pollution. Before our town made the switch to LED street lights I could see the light pollution 10 miles out of town proper any night of the year. With the LED street lights I only see the light pollution produced if there is a low cloud cover or light fog.

    11. Re:Die, IoT, die! by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 1

      I think just having them be a lot more efficient and aimed properly (designed for proper light dispersion only where it is needed) would do what we need to save tons of energy while generating less glare and light pollution. Also, I don't think they really need to be anywhere near as bright as they typically are... and if they were a proper color, that might help things too (that horrible, sick, orange color of sodium lights and anemic green/blue of mercury vapor lights really doesn't help).

      The new LED streetlights are more efficient, better aimed, and a decent "white". They're also cheap enough that a lot of jurisdictions are replacing the older ones, even before they die. (Around here it looks like: When a lamp dies and they have to roll a truck anyway to replace the bulb and/or ballast, they'll replace the fixture - or a cluster of 'em - with LED versions instead of relamping the old fixture(s).)

      --
      Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
  3. Nothing to see here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Seeing how awful a company they have proven to be, this is nuts. It seems that this would be setting them up as a service provider to the government with the prime function of snooping on the public. A camera and other sensors in every street light, and who knows what else. [insert catchy cliche about disaster/dehumanization here]

    1. Re:Nothing to see here by gtall · · Score: 1

      "Awful" doesn't quite cover it. "Inept" is what I think of. I was recently informed my router from Verizon was no longer supported. I could belly up to the bar for a new, used router for $69.99. Seeing as I had no choice or get nicked a bit more every month for the router they were no longer supporting, I decided to bite the bullet and, screw it, I'm busy, so get the new frikken router.

      Go to web site...it no recognize my password I set nigh two months ago. Attempt to get a new password. Its password Strength-O-Meter liked the 11 character password, but add one more letter and no, it didn't like that. Then the thing tells me it failed...except it was lying, I was finally able to log in. Attempt to get new, used router. It needs to create a pin for the transaction to "protect my privacy" and would send me the pin in email. Get pin, type in....oh, it fails claiming its Pin Recognition Piece-O-Delicate Machinery was on the fritz and did I mind answering some security questions instead. Answer security questions, order router...except it now says transaction failed and I get "I cannot do that, Dave" response. Give up. Try to find phone number on site to call...no phone number...anywhere...from a frikken phone company. Get phone number customer support from my Verizon bill, call Verizon Central Command. Obstinately refuse to play Auto Phone Pinball...finally get a real live Phone Weasel. "How can I assist you?" Oh, let me count the ways....

  4. Lightspy by markdavis · · Score: 3, Insightful

    http://www.sensity.com/compute...
    http://www.sensity.com/for-sec...

    Oh great, just what we need- turning all the hundreds of thousands of streetlamps into spy cameras. Monitor all vehicles, read and store all plates, monitor all pedestrians, monitor all houses and driveways, add facial recognition. Oh, but it is in "public spaces" and so it would never be abused... everything will be transparent, it would never be hacked either..... right.

    1. Re:Lightspy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Especially with Verizon!!!

  5. really verizon? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    in your quest for greed, err i mean "for new growth areas" you're buying up companies and playing with LoT, why not actually service your existing customers, and hell i dunno, put in fiber to the people that are actually desperate for it, they are waving cash at you, but I know its not "sexy" enough for you and its hard work so you will continue to be a modern horrible corporation, your in great company

  6. Of course... by MDMurphy · · Score: 1

    Verizon announced that they'll be using radios mounted on light poles for their IoT initiative.

    In the mid 90's that's how Metricom mounted their radios, having a selection of power taps that fit the several standard light sensors on top of the poles, making deals with cities, either paying for the access or trading in exchange for wirleless interent. Besides supporting consumers who just wanted internet access, they were initially targeting municipalities, meters and such. ( before IoT was coined ). I used it in 1996 do do paid consulting work at Starbucks before they were filled with college and high school students sucking down WiFi and doing their homework.

    In 1999 MCI invested $600 million in Metricom. (Which they spent like drunken sailors and soon imploded, even though they had the most robust wireless data setup commercially available )

    In 2005 Verizon purchased MCI.

    So my first thought when I read the title was, "Yeah.. no shit".

  7. I will saturate their sensor with a LASER by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This will not fly with me. It's time to nip this in the bud. I am sure we can render the sensor useless with a LASER. I would use an infra red laser.