The town of Plainville has installed hundreds of new LED street lights and some are being equipped with a special feature.
If you look up in Plainville, you'll see some of the 1,400 new LED street lights. A more than $360,000 upgrade from the bulbs you're used to. According to town officials the new lights should save the town nearly $70,000 a year on electric costs because of the LED’s efficiency.
But there's one more bright idea from the town: having 123 new LED street light emit free Wi-Fi.
"Who doesn't feel good about free Wi-Fi?" said New Britain Visitor Yara Velazquez.
Town officials say of the 123 lights, 25 will act as access points.
Those access points will catch the 10mbps signal beamed out of the municipal building.
Then the other 98 Wi-Fi lamps will act as extenders pushing the signal all around downtown Plainville.
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"Now everyone can walk up and down the street to play Pokémon,” laughed Pam Kristoff.
Kristoff said she’s intrigued as a business manager whose customers often ask to connect to their internet.
"They are all looking for the passwords.” said Kristoff.
She also doesn't mind the towns idea of using the Wi-Fi login page for paid advertising space.
"I’ll have to check that out,” said Kristoff.
Ad-money town officials said will be used to help pay for the more than $10,000 per year service.
"With that, we are hoping it will offset any cost of maintenance for the Wi-Fi" said Assistant Town Manager Shirley Osle.
With Plainville being the first town in Connecticut to have Wi-Fi showering down on its residents from street lights, the signal for support is clear.
"It's awesome!” said Velazquez.
Town officials said the new Wi-Fi should begin in about a month.
