CIVIQ’s Smart Cities Effort Gets New Toe-hold In San Antonio

February 27, 2017 by Dave Haynes

The organization pushing screen-based smart cities initiatives in the US, CIVIQ Smartscapes, has announced a new pilot program to bring state-of-the-art urban technology to the urban center of Bexar County, TX, aka San Antonio.

As part of the program, CIVIQ WayPoints will be installed throughout the County complex in downtown San Antonio, providing residents with high-speed public Wi-Fi and access to county information via interactive touchscreen displays.

“We are very excited to partner with Bexar County and bring our technology and innovation to such a forward-thinking community,” says Gerry Burns, President, CIVIQ Smartscapes. “Through our CIVIQ WayPoint solution, the County will be able to enhance communications and services, providing a connected experience for its residents and visitors.”

The pilot network, which will be installed and managed by CIVIQ Smartscapes, is targeted to start deploying in May in the area surrounding the County courthouse and County facilities in the City Center.

“I’m very excited to announce these kiosks,” says County Judge Nelson Wolff.  “These will provide easy access to County information and our places of interest including our World Heritage sites.  This is another step in the County’s efforts in building a vibrant urban environment and expanding wireless technology for Bexar County residents and visitors.”

CIVIQ Smartscapes is best known for the LinkNYC project that is converting, ultimately, 1,000s of old payphones into high-speed, free public Wi-Fi hubs.

Along with NYC, CIVIQ has stuff going in the early stages in Miami and Chicago and has made a fuzzy announcement a few weeks ago that the city of Portland is exploring working with them.

This deal doesn’t get into the whole who pays and how this gets paid for thing. It MAY be an effort right now to better disseminate information, paid for by the country, but advertising dollars tend to find their way into these things, as a means to at least cover capital and operating expenses.