The city of San Jose, California and AT&T are partnering to to extend Wi-Fi coverage and build smart city infrastructure across 14 parks around the city. The goal is to improve public safety, save energy, and improve the lives of the city’s residents. Bringing internet access to those who don’t already have it – often low-income residents – is a major priority for the city. Earlier this year, Mayor Sam Liccardo announced a $24 million, 10-year “digital inclusion” fund to provide Wi-Fi to under served residents and schools.
The project, worth an estimated $1 million, will outfit 550 streetlights with LED lights, and install 670 smart-lighting controllers, 15 digital infrastructure nodes and 100 Wi-Fi extenders from AT&T. The digital infrastructure nodes are AT&T’s all-in-one sensor system – they are integrated into a single piece of hardware, with on-board edge compute functions, and offer data streams that can be used to study traffic patterns, pedestrian behavior, parking, and environmental factors. The city’s initial plans are to use tilt-vibration sensors to detect seismic activity.
“We know that living in California, sometime in the next 50 years we have a very high chance of a large earthquake. This helps with emergency response — every second counts in that situation,” Shireen Santosham, chief innovation officer of San Jose, said.
Additionally, AT&T will donate $200,000 to support digital literacy training at senior and youth-based community centers.
Sam Liccardo, mayor of San José, said, ”Our public-private partnership with AT&T offers another example of how San José is working collaboratively with companies to improve our community and solve problems with technology. Together we’re working to close the digital divide, improve lighting and public safety in our parks, and minimize our environmental impact along the way.”
