The Humble Street Light Shines in Smart City Strategies

One of the goals of a smart city is to attract the best and the brightest residents and businesses. The “best and the brightest” is also the perfect description for connected street lighting, the transformation of single purpose street lights into city expandable assets in the era of the Internet of Things

Although smart city projects are still in their infancy, municipalities can already calculate the return on investment (ROI) for using connected street lighting to save money over installing standalone parking meters. Or, generate revenue by using connected street lighting as electric vehicle charging stations.

The vision for using connected street lighting to save money or energy, generate revenue or augment civic communication is dependent on the technology choices that planners make. One of those critical decisions is to choose Point-to-Point (P2P) cellular technology at the pole for taking advantage of the widest range of smart city business cases—present and future—for connected street lighting.