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posted by janrinok on Sunday November 08 2015, @05:38PM   Printer-friendly
from the maybe dept.

Cities beefing up their smart infrastructure have tapped the ubiquitous streetlamp to track traffic data and measure pollution. Now, in Los Angeles, some streetlights will help keep the communications network intact after an emergency.

LA is the first city in the world to install Philips-branded SmartPoles, which are outfitted with 4G LTE wireless technology by Ericsson to help boost broadband coverage throughout the city. Each pole is connected to the network by a fiber link, which helps keep a steady connection. The location of the poles—which are closer to the streets and sidewalks where people are actually using their phones than central cell towers—gives the network the advantage of being more equally dispersed across the region. That gives people more bars in some of the denser areas of the city, for example.

While better day-to-day cell service is a great feature, the real benefit here in LA is that the system won't be as likely to be knocked out by, I dunno, say, a major earthquake.

It would be more useful if they had solar panels and/or battery packs to self-power when the grid goes down...


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @11:29PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @11:29PM (#260561)

    Yes... turn off your wifi when traveling, unless the cost of privacy is worth the free wifi services. And turn off bluetooth and um.

    I guess owning an android or microsoft or apple phone is probably just a poor idea if privacy is important. i used to be upset when people forwarded me stuff in email by using the button on a website and giving the website my email address. Now my info I didnt hand out to any business is downloaded off the phones of people who added me in to their contact list.

    which means not even having one of those phones, but trusting people who do, is probably bad for privacy. meh. well. i hear that more stds are going around due to the social age we are in and tindry things. i guess privates are more important to exercise than privacy.