The Backbone of the Internet of Things
So what she&#x27;s saying in this article is that the physical poles on which street lights reside represent what will soon become valuable real estate.<p>She&#x27;s probably right.  But what I worry about regarding street lighting and anything municipal-IoT related, at least in America, is that a lot of IoT business models seem to be along the lines of, &quot;we&#x27;re not selling you an LED light, we&#x27;re selling you a monthly lighting plan!  It&#x27;s a whole new paradigm!&quot;<p>That may work for the corporate world, where timeframes tend to go in quarterly, yearly or three-year cycles, but in the municipal world, timeframes for equipment could be up to, perhaps 50 years or more.  The sentiment in this scenario would be, &quot;we need that manhole cover to continue to work.&quot;<p>If you have smart LED lighting (which was not discussed in this article), in a municipality, being sold on a monthly plan, and then the city has a down year, or a Detroit-style downturn or whatever, and the city tries to negotiate with the LED lighting company providing that service, that LED lighting service company can threaten to, &quot;turn off the lights,&quot; which would lead to all sorts of bad press for the city workers, who ultimately are just trying to live safe, protected lives working in guaranteed government jobs.<p>So I guess my contribution to this discussion is - I speculate or worry that companies may try to barter for that real estate by offering highly discounted smart lighting systems, because, &quot;hey, we&#x27;re already there...we might as well help you control the light, and provide you a huge discount!&quot;  For cities who don&#x27;t have smart CIOs and CFOs who understand this stuff, they are going to end up getting screwed.<p>Mind you, my perspective is totally American...could be different in other countries depending upon how these government functions are organized.