this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2025
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This is just an educated guess, but since there doesn't appear to be a meter attached to it, I'm going to guess it belongs to the electric utility and is part of their AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) network.
There's a device at the substation that can read all the meters fed from the sub. Some utilities use AMI over power lines, some use a wireless mesh network, and some use a combination of different technologies depending on a few things.
Source: used to run the department that handled the AMI system.
I'll second this as someone who used to administer an AMI headend. This is essentially an industrial wifi access point. This device connects to the utility's operations network, and provides connectivity to smart meters in the area.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_meter_reading
Based on the shape, at first I it thought was one of the new mesh network streetlights, but after zooming in more I think you're right, it looks like an antenna box for a wireless metering network.
Sorry but how does making mesh network streetlights help anything? What’s up with the normal ones?
Cities still need a way of knowing when streetlights burn out or are in need of service.
You can wait for people to report them out, hope the report is accurate, and then send workers out to try and find them and fix them (and it's not exactly easy to figure out which light is burnt out during the day), or you can proactively send workers out to fix exactly the right light as soon as they break or show any signs that they might.