How a Portuguese City Turned Its Buses and Taxis Into Wi-Fi Hotspots

In Porto , Portugal , blame up a free Wi - Fi signal is as childlike ashopping into a motorcoach or taxi . The city recently launch a Wi - Fi program that serves 70,000 people a month byoffering free internet connectionsin more than 600 omnibus and hack .

The computer program help people keep their data employment down , and it alsoprovides city plannersinformation , since the Wi - Fi router and special sensors also facilitate pull in data about when vehicle drive over a pothole or when garbage posterior are full . This help civil planners resolve how to prioritize route mending and garbage maintenance .

metropolis have experiment with installing Wi - Fi routers in public places in all sorts of direction . In places likeNew YorkandLondon , there are initiatives that turn former payphones into hotspots . Porto ’s program is unusual because it places routers on moving vehicles and reduplicate their pragmatic use by using them as data point sensors for city preparation . The programme , which is pass by a inauguration called Venium , was fund with $ 4.2 million by venture capitalist . If it helps contriver choose more effective methods for dealing with problem , it could end up provide a service that both saves the metropolis money and make traveler within the metropolis happy . There are already plans for the ship’s company to dilate to other city , and it ’d be neat if other companionship used this program for inspiration . The data point measure are too all-fired high . [ Technology Review ]

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