Microcells being added to Supercharger locations for "value-added" services?

[tinm]

Yesterday I was at a Supercharger in New Mexico and another Tesla owner told me that he'd been at this location recently and there was a worker there surveying the lot, and upon questioning had told him that Tesla was planning to add a microcell to the Supercharger location which would then be used to add "value added services" to Tesla owners who are at the location charging.

Has anyone heard anything like this anywhere else? What would these "value-added" services be? I've long expected at some point, you pull into a Supercharger and your car's screen starts showing ads. I sure HOPE that is not what this is about.

 

[trace]

Is there an ATT deadzone or low signal where the supercharger is located? They may be trying to boost signals especially to get data from the supercharger.

I highly doubt they'd start showing ads for the mere pennies they'd get.

 

[BioSehnsucht]

I'm not sure why they'd go with a microcell versus a WiFi installation, they would both need some kind of backhaul (whether it be microwave, cellular, satellite or landline). Can't think of any good reason to do so...

If they were surveying to put up WiFi for various purposes (such as providing some streamed entertainment service in-vehicle) and perhaps a microwave / cellular / long range wifi backhaul I could see surveying being useful though to plan it out.

 

[tinm]

Is there an ATT deadzone or low signal where the supercharger is located? They may be trying to boost signals especially to get data from the supercharger.

I highly doubt they'd start showing ads for the mere pennies they'd get.

Not a deadzone at all. I charge there and there's plenty of AT&T LTE service. (This is the Santa Fe Supercharger by the way)