Smart cities: When a light is more than a light and a bus is more than a bus

There’s no master list of smart city use cases primarily because, in the right context, nearly anything could contribute to a smart city. However, some of the major ones that have seen strong adoption include vehicular connectivity for police cars, school buses and the like; security cameras for public safety; transportation-focused initiatives like digital signage at bus stops and interactive kiosks for more streamlined access to transit information; public Wi-Fi hot spots; and smart lighting.

Let’s take a closer look at smart lighting for a moment. Most any city needs street lighting, and street lighting infrastructure needs to be replaced incrementally. During upgrade cycles, increasingly inexpensive LED lights can be installed to cut back on overall energy consumption; similarly, sensors can be layered in so the lights are only on when they need to be. “For a lot of cities, that’s the first thing they touch,” CommScope Director of Smart Cities Morné Erasmus said, noting a clear cut path to return on investment, generally in the three to four year range.

In fact, the business case for smart lighting is quite bright. Juniper Research projects smart lighting investments can save cities $15 billion in energy costs between now and 2023. That figure contemplates both the switch to LED bulbs as well as the responsive, automated controls. To break that down, U.K.-based provider Telensa figures a cost reduction of around 50% simply by switching to LED; layering in the sensors can contribute an additional 20% to 25% cost reduction.

Juniper forecasts the number of connected street lights will grow on average by 42% per year amounting to around 70 million units by 2023. Similarly, ABI Research predicts annual revenue from smart street lights will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 31% to $1.7 billion in 2026.

Here’s the interesting thing about light poles–as a one-off use case, converting to LEDs and smart controls is a smart city application with a clear benefit and business case. But, given that light poles are generally in trafficked areas, connected to power (and in some cases fiber), and capable of supporting additional smart city-type equipment, a street light isn’t just a street light.

Echoing Erasmus’ comment, Juniper Research author Steffen Sorrell said the associated cost savings “mean that many cities will look to this as a first-stage smart city project. Choosing an open platform will be key here, as additional services can be launched from the same point, while simultaneously driving up third-party vendor competition.”

In San Jose, California, AT&T is working with the city on a street light project that’s more than a street light project.