Matt Blaze@alice Based on the label and the form factor, I'd say it's a (vestigial) Metricom "Ricochet" repeater. This was a low-speed 900 MHz wireless ISP that served various metropolitan areas until 2001.
Looks like the power cable has been removed.
@alice They leased space on lampposts in the service areas. Customers accessed the service via a brick that hooked up to the USB or serial port on your laptop. It was much slower than we're used to now, but really great at the time.
Ken McLeod@mattblaze @alice Ricochet predated USB ports. And was much slower than we're used to now.
Economy 2.4 Kbps $2.95 per month
Standard 9.6 $9.95
Executive 19.2 $19.95
Premier Unrestricted $29.95
Subscribers to the Standard, Executive and Premier plans may rent a Ricochet portable wireless modem for $20 per month. Alternatively, subscribers to any service level may purchase modems for $495. There is also a one-time activation fee of $95.
@_the_cloud @alice The earlier (and bricker) black modem used serial, but the later (smaller) gray modem had USB. As I said it was much slower than we're currently used to, but at the time, it was really great. (I believe the prices and speeds you're quoting were from the time the service was introduced. It got faster and cheaper by the time they went belly up in 2001).
As I recall, some ex-employees managed to get things back up and running in lower Manhattan post-9/11.
@_the_cloud @alice A little thing that made the service possible to roll out easily was an almost incidental feature of most street lamp fixtures: they have standard 110VAC power outlets above the lamp head. So installing the network nodes was simply a matter of affixing the device to the lamp arm (usually with the antenna side pointing down) and plugging the power cord into the existing socket. No separate power required, solar panels, etc. Just a permit from the city and a bucket truck.