One of the simplest cost-to-benefit propositions in a smart city is converting previously ‘dumb’ LED street lighting to “smart,” because it immediately pays for itself. With the advent of cellular IoT technology, this also means that the supporting infrastructure required is already in place.

The convenience and durability of LED street lighting poles make them an ideal basis for deploying other smart city applications.

Smart pays with cellular IoT

According to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), by 2050, seven in ten people will live in a city, and massive migration is already underway.

With more people moving to cities, authorities everywhere are under increasing pressure to provide better services with less money per capita. And today’s rising strain includes improving their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance.

That’s a big ask. And, more significantly, why the smart city industry is expected to grow to $7 billion in less than a decade.

Fortunately, there is a clear spot to begin cutting down on energy usage and expenditures in the smart city sector. And that’s precisely what we aim to achieve with our solar streetlamps program: make existing LED streetlights smarter.

This entails adjusting streetlights to react more accurately to actual local light conditions rather than relying on a fixed timetable. On a bright, sunny day, the lighting may be kept off for longer than on an overcast day.

If pedestrian numbers or road traffic density are low, the lighting intensity or density need not be as great.

More than just energy saving

However, streetlights have a wide range of benefits. They may help you save money on your power bills. Streetlighting can assist you in reducing energy consumption and cost even more money in the long run if not properly maintained. Smart LED street lighting is also capable of being constantly monitored. This opens the door to detecting and anticipating streetlight failures.

As a result, expensive maintenance personnel may be deployed to work more efficiently by, for example, inspecting and repairing groups of streetlights in one location. And because this cuts the number of kilometers they have to drive in their service vehicles, it also helps reduce pollution.

Over time, the energy and maintenance cost savings of incorporating smart LEDs into streetlights typically outweighs the initial investment.

The lightbulb moment

The additional advantages of intelligent street lighting include cost savings and safety. Street lights are positioned in the most common areas where people go, therefore they’re accessible at all times. They’re physically robust (tall, weather-proof, and secured by a mains connection in case batteries aren’t available).

This allows them to become a good location for other smart city application sensors. Examples of obvious applications include traffic flow management, air and noise pollution reduction, and pedestrian count monitoring.

Smart city technologies may make towns and cities safer, greener, and more pleasant places to live.

Benefits

While the advantages of switching to smart LED street lighting and a smart city are becoming increasingly apparent, the only disadvantage is technological complexity.

The majority of local town and city officials are staffed by personnel who aren’t IT experts and don’t want to learn.

However, these are crucial decision-makers when it comes to street lighting and smart cities. The easier smart city providers make city employees’ jobs, the more likely they are to choose that path.

Conclusion

In today’s world, change is a given in any technology sector, and the rate of change always appears to rise. Wireless IoT is not an exception to this rule. Nobody expects to wake up one day and discover that outside their door there is no cellular wireless network since the streetlight’s typical two, three, or even four-decade existence.

When it comes to wireless IoT, Cellular IoT offers future-proofing that is unrivaled. It provides all of the scalability, quality of service, security, and dependability advantages that the world has come to expect from cellular networks and relies upon.