Zero Site lights up cities and improves mobile broadband connectivity

Royal Philips and Ericsson have partnered to develop a connected LED street lighting model called Zero Site. According to the companies, the solution solves two issues simultaneously: offering city officials an innovative way to afford next-generation energy-efficient LED lighting to meet sustainability goals and enabling network operators to offer improved city-wide mobile broadband and app coverage.

The companies have combined the benefits of mobile connectivity and LED lighting in a ‘lighting-as-a-service’ model for cities. They say this will allow city authorities to offer space within their connected lighting poles to network service providers for mobile broadband infrastructure.

The partnership will see Philips offer cities LED street lighting that can also include mobile telecoms equipment from Ericsson. Mobile operators working with Ericsson for mobile broadband infrastructure will be able to rent space in the poles.

In this way, mobile network operators will be able to improve data coverage and capacity for citizens, resulting in enhanced mobile broadband services. The model also accelerates the payback time for city infrastructure by making the up-front costs of installing and managing these systems more affordable, reducing the strain on city budgets.

“This is a tremendous solution using ICT and partnerships to address the megatrend of urbanisation. City populations are increasing at the rate of 7500 people per hour, but our world is not geographically expanding. Meanwhile, our ConsumerLab research shows that internet connectivity is one of the top five factors for satisfaction in city life. This Zero Site solution is the kind of innovation that offers a way for people to succeed in the Networked Society,” said Ericsson President and CEO Hans Vestberg.

“This new connected LED street lighting model is another example of us bringing the Internet of Things to life and demonstrates the capabilities of light beyond illumination. We are offering lighting as a service that scales with a city’s needs and enables city officials to offer their citizens a more connected, energy-efficient and safer urban environment, while preserving existing budgets and resources to improve the liveability of their city,” added Philips President and CEO Frans van Houten.

To meet the demand for coverage and capacity, mobile operators need to improve, densify and add many more radio cell sites in dense areas. The new connected street light pole, designed to house Ericsson’s suite of small cell products, offers network operators new possibilities to find the right site location, the company says. It may also help to scale the deployment of mobile broadband technology beyond traditional sites - a key enabler for evolving heterogeneous networks.