Verizon Buys New York Smart Kiosk Company

More smart kiosks may be coming to cities, thanks to a new move by a major network.

Adding to another recent IoT-related acquisition, Verizon just acquired New York-based LQD Wi-Fi, a company that creates smart hubs for cities, similar to the LinkNYC kiosks in New York City.

The company’s Palo hub appears to offer similar functionality to the already installed LinkNYC connected kiosks in New York City, which include free public Wi-Fi and other connected services, powered by display advertising on the kiosks themselves.

"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,” Mike Lanman, senior vice president of enterprise products and IoT at Verizon said.

“This transaction uniquely positions us to utilize our infrastructure, platforms and network at scale to deploy engaging community technology hubs that connect, inform, inspire and support people where they live, work and play."

In LinkNYC’s case, the advertising opportunities have been well-received. For example, Initiative recently won a silver CLIO award for its Shazam and Coors Light campaign, which centered around using the kiosks for interactive engagement.

The kiosks, which were equipped with beacons, could trigger nearby consumers’ smartphones to engage with the music playlist playing from the kiosk. Consumers could tap into the playlists via Shazam, which included integrated Coors Light advertising across the experience in the app and on the kiosk displays.

In Verizon’s case, engagement is a driving force behind cities adopting smart kiosks, according to Randy Ramusack, founder and CEO of LQD.

"We designed Palo, from day one, to be part of the community, offering Wi-Fi, public safety features and a unique, interactive community engagement platform,” Ramusack said in a statement.

“Palo's human-scale touch screen lets users explore and connect with the local community creating multiple ways to engage, through an innovative, purposeful and curated experience."

Verizon also recently acquired Sensity Systems, a California-based company focused on connected LED lights for city infrastructures.

Sensity focuses on integrating smart sensors into LED lights to be able to connect them to communicate with each other to create a large-scale IoT network and platform.

With this platform, other connected devices can communicate with each other to improve city services, according to Sensity. More specifically, real-time parking availability and extending retail location tracking and analytics beyond the walls of physical stores are Sensity’s top use cases, according to Sensity.

 

1 comment about "Verizon Buys New York Smart Kiosk Company".
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  1. Leonard Zachary from T___n__, November 18, 2016 at 12:48 p.m.

    Ironic that VZ let go of its payphone grid to LinkNYC (Google) and now VZ is back to replace something they should have never sold....

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