Verizon continued its charge into the Internet of Things (IoT) space this week with another acquisition, this time targeted at developing its smart city capabilities.
The carrier said Monday it has inked a deal to buy “substantially all” of the assets of LQD WiFi LLC, a private, New York-based company that makes interactive kiosks – called Palo hubs – offering free Wi-Fi, news, community information, and emergency alerts.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but a July 2015 Securities and Exchange Commission filing from the company indicates it previously raised $1.73 million from unidentified investors.
Verizon said the move will help it better meet the needs of municipalities and citizens as expectations for smart city capabilities increase. In particular, Verizon said it is looking to address community needs like fostering economic development, bridging the digital divide by offering free Wi-Fi, improving transportation and traffic management, and boosting urban planning. Verizon said it is already working with LQD to design solutions for municipalities, private developers, academic institutions, and entertainment venues.
“LQD’s Palo technology hubs capture Verizon’s vision of delivering citizen engagement experiences by connecting people with their communities while providing critical security, transportation, and wayfinding solutions as well as Wi-Fi capabilities,” Verizon’s Senior Vice President of Enterprise Products and Internet of Things Mike Lanman said. “This transaction uniquely positions us to utilize our unmatched infrastructure, platforms, and network at scale to deploy elegant and engaging community technology hubs that connect, inform, inspire, and support people where they live, work, and play.”
The carrier said LQD’s assets will be integrated with smart city solutions from Sensity Systems, which it acquired back in September. Sensity Systems offers embedded network technology for LED streetlights to create a smart lighting solution for municipalities and allow the implementation of other smart city technologies like public safety applications, environmental and weather monitoring, parking management, and location analytics.
The transaction is just the latest in a string of Verizon IoT acquisitions including the aforementioned Sensity deal, as well as agreements with telematics firms Telogis and Fleetmatics.
And Verizon’s moves are paying off. From the first quarter 2015 to the second quarter 2016, the carrier boosted its IoT revenue from $150 million to $205 million. That figure hit $217 million in the third quarter 2016.
Verizon’s news comes on the heels of Nokia’s release of a “Smart City Playbook” to help municipalities identify the best strategies and practices for smart city adoption.
Nokia’s playbook, which was developed through primary research into the strategies and progress of 22 cities around the world, identifies three major routes cities can take to make themselves smarter. The paths include an “anchor” route that involves deploying a single application to address a pressing problem such as traffic congestion, and then adding other applications over time; a “platform” route that builds the underlying infrastructure needed to support a wide variety of smart applications and services; and a “Beta Cities” route that entails trialing multiple applications as pilots to see how they perform before making long-term deployment decisions.
