New York City Is Turning Smart Garbage Bins Into Free Wi-Fi Hotspots
http://www.citylab.com/navigator/2015/07/new-york-city-wi-fi-trash-cans/398258/
Bigbelly, a Massachusetts-based waste management company, is hoping to turn its trash and recycling bins into wireless hotspots throughout New York City. There were more than 170 Bigbelly’s solar powered “smart” bins have already been installed in downtown Manhattan. Each container is equipped with a chip that detects when the bin is full or too smelly, which help manage trash collectors to make a pick-up. The city thought the already-high-tech bins could also use an upgrade by installing Wi-Fi units inside them. In the winter 2014, Bigbelly and New York’s Downtown Alliance worked together to turn two of the containers into hotspots. The test results showed that the network speed is at 50 to 75 megabits per second, which was more than enough to run a small business. Also the quality of the signal was not affected. The signals did not receive any interference from towering skyscrapers.
Bigbelly is not the only company trying to bring free Wi-Fi to the public in NYC. The city government has announced plans to turn almost all of its pay phones into state-of-the-art “links,” or Wi-Fi hubs. Google, Samsung, and others expected to submit bids for the project. While free Wi-Fi is the biggest benefit, but not the only one. The bins are also able to help the government collect data about waste management. For example, you can either have fifty trucks picking up half-full cans all day long, or have twenty-five trucks picking up full cans all day long, or keep a full staff and save a hundred gallons of fuel a week by nit idling near unessential pick up spots all afternoon.
