Ericsson and Philips have developed a connected street light design that allows city governments to rent space on light poles to mobile operators, giving them the option to deploy mobile broadband equipment beyond traditional sites and add more radio cells in dense areas to boost coverage.
Philip’s LED street lights are designed to be fitted with small cells from Ericsson. The Zero Site units give governments the opportunity to generate additional revenue, which speeds up the payback time for city lighting infrastructure, and at the same time reduce urban clutter.
Philips president and CEO Frans van Houten said: “We are offering lighting as a service that scales with a city’s needs and enables officials to offer citizens a more connected and energy-efficient urban environment, while preserving existing budgets.”
Given the number of street lights in cities and towns, the design will give telcos more flexibility in adding cells at the optimum locations.
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