Ubicquia
Making Cities Smarter Overnight

Technology has always been deeply intertwined with the evolution of cities. And now, rapid urbanization, aging infrastructure, and the need for improved quality of life are hastening the shift toward smarter cities. To make cities more livable, resilient, economically sound, and sustainable, it is necessary to leverage innovative smart city solutions. Developing smart cities is an incessant process and the first step toward achieving that, as recognized by many industry experts, is smart street lighting. Also known as connected lighting, it helps cities save energy, lower costs, and reduce maintenance while providing a backbone for a range of applications like traffic management, smart parking, extended Wi-Fi and more. Florida-based Ubicquia, a connected network and IoT platform provider, offers municipalities, utilities, and broadband service providers a cost-effective and expandable platform for smart city deployment, broadband and small cell services. “We take a street light and turn it into a cost-effective and modular platform that provides advanced lighting control, environmental monitoring, public Wi-Fi services and more,” says Ian Aaron, CEO, Ubicquia.

Ubicquia’s product suite includes Ubicell, Ubihub, and Ubimetro, all of which are compatible and compliant with the standard NEMA electrical socket. Ubicell is a plug-and-play street light router that provides advanced light control, broadband connectivity, utility grade power metering, and video and audio edge processing. It also provides real-time data on air quality, signal strength of mobile networks, the impact of high winds and storms on a street pole and more. Each Ubicell unit includes mesh Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities that easily allow for connection to third-party sensors such as air quality sensors and IP cameras. Ubihub is Ubicquia’s next-generation gigabit switch that provides edge processing and backup through SFP fiber connection. It has three Power over Ethernet (POE) ports that allow users to plug in cameras, digital signage, third-party sensors, and broadband. Ubimetro is a streetlight powered small cell with an omnidirectional antenna and NEMA socket plug-and-play platform that helps operators more rapidly densify their networks, improve wireless network capacity, and increase macro network efficiency.

We take a street light and turn it into a cost-effective and modular platform that provides advanced lighting control, environmental monitoring, and public Wi-Fi services

“Our platform enables users to not only deploy the data but also aggregate, access, and leverage it,” adds Aaron.

Ubicquia’s products find application in parking space detection, traffic counting, license plate recognition, and gunshot and audio detection. It also acts as an open development platform for third-party applications, responds and leverages existing routing networks, while being cost-effective and expandable. Illustrating Ubicquia’s capabilities, Aaron cites a case study where one of their clients wanted to use ornamental light poles along sidewalks to provide public Wi-Fi services. Subsequently, Ubicquia integrated light control, third-party sensors, and LED elements into Ubicell to provide the client a product that met their requirements. “We presented them with a low-cost identity solution in just a day,” adds Aaron.

Apart from providing services like lighting control, public Wi-Fi, and environmental monitoring, Ubicquia’s products are compatible will all LTE networks and offer air quality sensing, camera surveillance, and real-time signal monitoring of a mobile network. Ubicquia also recently joined AT&T’s Smart Cities Strategic Alliance to help cities enhance connectivity and improve functions like transportation, lighting, safety, and sustainability. “We’re excited about the AT&T partnership and look forward to working closely with them in deploying smart city solutions,” concludes Aaron.