Light Poles and Wi-Fi Access Don’t Always Mix

Relay nodes are being installed all over Minneapolis to improve Wi-Fi signal strength, but placing them on light poles has been problematic.
Photo by Glen Stubbe, Minneapolis Star Tribune

When the landscape architect specifies light poles for a streetscape, for example, the style of the pole and luminaire are of course important considerations. The landscape architect is probably not thinking about Wi-Fi service.

By late February 2008, however, about 59 sq. miles, basically the entire land area of Minneapolis, will be Wi-Fi ready and supplying high-speed Internet access to what Garrison Keillor likes to call the “edge of the prairie.”

Antenna coverage and interfering foliage have caused technical difficulties. One obvious place to install Wi-Fi relay nodes was on light poles. The problem is that light poles can’t supply enough electricity to Wi-Fi access points mounted on the poles because of their intermittent power usage, i.e., the poles are not powered on during daylight hours. That little problem could be fixed by adding new electric wires to the underground conduits that serve the poles, of course, but the tough Minneapolis weather has cracked many of the conduits, which fill with water, which then freeze and prevent new wiring installation. US Internet has had to either run overhead power lines to those poles or rearrange certain Wi-Fi hotspots to provide coverage.