Sam Liccardo – the urbanist Mayor of San José – has revealed a partnership with Helium (the People’s network) aiming to deliver low-cost decentralised LoRaWAN internet to the city’s most vulnerable residents.
The partnership, also involving the California Emerging Technology Fund, is one of the first of its kind and will see the deployment of additional Helium internet nodes which will extend full coverage across the city.
During its pilot period, the program aims to cover the expenses of low-cost internet plans for over 1,300 low-income households by providing participants with an initial one-time $120 payment.
Helium operates as a decentralised network of internet nodes, operated by everyday people in their homes to provide localised LoRaWAN internet coverage in return for the ability to earn HNT token rewards. This has led to the colloquialism the People’s Network.
In comments to Coin Rivet, Amir Haleem – the co-founder and CEO of Helium, explained the significance of the smart city partnership for demonstrating a genuine and empowering use case for decentralised LoRaWAN internet.
“To democratise and decentralise the internet is the driving force behind the Helium Network and this program with the City of San José brings that mission to life,” explained the CEO.
“Bridging the digital divide for its citizens, and doing so through a use-case such as this shows that San José is at the forefront of how municipalities can drive real change moving forward.”
The San José smart city advisory board begun the initiative in 2016, inspired to bridge the benefits of the Silicon Valley tech bubble with the local Californian community. In doing so the board aims to deliver technologically advanced city infrastructures and governance.
“Just as the world looks to Silicon Valley to provide the most creative, impactful technologies to disrupt industries and transform lifestyles, so too can San José become a global leader for civic innovation,” states the Board’s smart city vision.
So far this has included the implementation of data-technologies for traffic management, digital drives aimed at stoking a fresh culture of civic engagement and participation, the deployment of water and energy conservation technologies, a pollutant and emission sensor network, and now the beginnings of a city-wide Internet of Things infrastructure.
Speaking at the partnership launch San José Mayor Sam Liccardo argued that it was critical Silicon Valley drove innovation in more than just products and that working with Helium would demonstrate the power of public-private collaboration on urban systems.
“Here in the heart of Silicon Valley, San José must set an example for how to solve problems with emerging technologies and public-private partnerships,” said the Mayor.
“Becoming a smarter city means leveraging emerging technologies that improve how we serve our community, making it safer, more sustainable, and more equitable.
“This first-of-its-kind partnership between the Mayor’s Office, Helium, and CETF represents one of many innovative public-private partnership models that we’re advancing to bridge the digital divide for residents.”
This comes as Helium continue to make stride after stride – right on the tail of the news that Helium has partnered with Sennet and joined the Lora Alliance.
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