Internet-enabled traffic signals, streetlights, and natural gas meters are expensive to deploy. One company hopes selling the technology as a service will help its business. November 19, 2013 4:55 AM PST Wish your home town had network-enabled streetlights? A company called Silver Spring Networks does, and Tuesday it unveiled a service designed to make the technology and other networked infrastructure more affordable. Municipalities that want to network things like traffic lights, parking meters, natural gas pipe monitors, water main flow gauges, and public transit status boards now can subscribe to a service under which Silver Spring Networks installs and maintains the network. The option expands the company's business from selling technology to selling a service, and it means cities can buy the service with steady payments rather than a large up-front investment to install the technology. Online streetlights and the like may sound extravagant, but the company argues they're worth the money because they can help pinpoint problems in advance and move more rapidly to energy-efficient control systems. Related stories DecaWave chip adds accuracy when locating indoor objects First, smart cars. Next, smart transport grids How Google's robo-cars mean the end of driving as we know it SmartThings opens shop for Internet of Things Counting the Internet of things in real time Silver Spring uses a wireless network with IPv6 technology -- the next-generation Internet addressing scheme that's now catching on. The company provides an example of a concept called the Internet of things, in which anything with an electronic pulse can be hooked into the global network. The company has won over a variety of customers, including several power, gas, lighting, and electricity companies. The city of Copenhagen is bringing the company's technology to 20,000 streetlights, and Paris is using it for streetlights and traffic signals.
Internet-enabled traffic signals, streetlights, and natural gas meters are expensive to deploy. One company hopes selling the technology as a service will help its business.
Wish your home town had network-enabled streetlights? A company called Silver Spring Networks does, and Tuesday it unveiled a service designed to make the technology and other networked infrastructure more affordable.
Municipalities that want to network things like traffic lights, parking meters, natural gas pipe monitors, water main flow gauges, and public transit status boards now can subscribe to a service under which Silver Spring Networks installs and maintains the network. The option expands the company's business from selling technology to selling a service, and it means cities can buy the service with steady payments rather than a large up-front investment to install the technology.
Online streetlights and the like may sound extravagant, but the company argues they're worth the money because they can help pinpoint problems in advance and move more rapidly to energy-efficient control systems.
Related stories
- DecaWave chip adds accuracy when locating indoor objects
- First, smart cars. Next, smart transport grids
- How Google's robo-cars mean the end of driving as we know it
- SmartThings opens shop for Internet of Things
- Counting the Internet of things in real time
Silver Spring uses a wireless network with IPv6 technology -- the next-generation Internet addressing scheme that's now catching on. The company provides an example of a concept called the Internet of things, in which anything with an electronic pulse can be hooked into the global network.
The company has won over a variety of customers, including several power, gas, lighting, and electricity companies. The city of Copenhagen is bringing the company's technology to 20,000 streetlights, and Paris is using it for streetlights and traffic signals.
