AT&T tapped for smart cities initiative in Chicago
AT&T’s pursuit of the IoT continued to make news today with the announcement that the carrier will provide connectivity for a smart cities initiative starting this summer in Chicago.
The nation’s No. 2 mobile operator said it was tapped by Array of Things (AoT), a project “designed to gather critical data about a city’s environment and infrastructure” to improve efficiency and livability. The effort aims to install 500 sensor-based nodes in Chicago by the end of 2018 to track factors including air quality, noise, climate, and traffic congestion.
The data will be transmitted over AT&T’s wireless network to a central database server at the Argonne National Laboratory, which is operated by the University of Chicago for the U.S. Department of Energy. The data will be processed and openly available to the public, enabling researchers, city services and technology developers to use it to address a variety of urban challenges.
AT&T was an early player among U.S. carriers in the IoT market, and it has churned out a stream of press releases in recent weeks touting its efforts. This week alone it has announced an IoT-based partnership with IBM, an effort to bring connectivity to equipment in fast food restaurants, and a planned launch of Cat-M1 technologies. The wide variety of use cases underscores the enormous potential of an IoT market that is rapidly gaining momentum. Press release