San Jose plans smart city infrastructure with Verizon and AT&T

AT&T and San Jose (CA) have added a public-private partnership to their existing small cell agreement. The new agreement calls for San Jose to trial AT&T's smart city solutions. AT&T's digital infrastructure, which the company has described as a "smartphone for cities," is connected hardware with integrated sensors that can be attached to lamp posts to capture information about the environment. AT&T said the solutions it plans to trial with San Jose may include LED smart lighting, public Wi-Fi, digital infrastructure and structure monitoring. The carrier also indicated San Jose will not be one of its launch cities for mobile 5G in 2018, saying AT&T's mobile 5G is scheduled to come to San Jose in 2019.

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo thanked Verizon for its "large investment towards improving service for our residents and businesses, and for their sizable contribution into our digital inclusion fund." Verizon will also fund telematics service for San Jose's vehicle fleet. The carrier has recently consolidated its three telematics businesses—Verizon Telematics, Fleetmatics and Telogis—into one unit called Verizon Connect. The upside for Verizon is access to city streets and infrastructure to enable the carrier to upgrade its wireless network with small cells. Verizon plans to deploy fiber in San Jose, which it will use to connect small cells that it will attach to city light poles. In addition, the carrier plans to supply San Jose with three smart city solutions, which it says will be "focused on intersection safety, traffic data and parking space management."