News Digest

New York transforming rubbish bins into free wi-fi hotspots

Rubbish and recycling bins in New York City are being transformed into solar-powered Wi-Fi hotspots. According to CityLab, Massachusetts-based waste management firm Bigbelly has upgraded some its 170 “smart bins” to offer free Wi-Fi for the people on the streets of downtown Manhattan. The company’s existing bins contain an intelligent chip that detects when they need emptying, alerting bin collectors to which need dealing with first.

We are a smart solar-powered, connected technology platform that is literally sitting in the streets of New York.

Leila Dillon, Bigbelly’s vice president of global marketing

The upgraded bins have had a Wi-Fi unit installed inside, which have proved successful in initial trials. More testing is set to take place before the service is expanded. Although free public Wi-Fi is the main objective, the connected bins could also potentially be used to collect waste management data or even for displaying emergency public alerts. This isn’t the first attempt at blanket free Wi-Fi coverage on the streets of NYC - Google-owned Sidewalk Labs is at planning to convert the city’s old phone booths into free public Wi-Fi hubs.