A consortium including the city of Leuven in Belgium, TRES, and Nokia is working on the Digital City Pole project to create 5G connectivity throughout Leuven. The project aims to create an IoT intelligent urban infrastructure that will stimulate local innovation, drive productivity, enhance safety, and create jobs.
Digital lighting pole specialist, TRES, will upgrade streetlight poles with energy-efficient LED lighting and electric vehicle charging points. The poles will provide a platform to host high-performance connectivity and sensors for smart city services.
Nokia will provide industrial-grade, 5G-ready private wireless networking to be deployed in partnership with local service provider, Citymesh. Nokia will also supply its Gigabit Passive Optical Networks technology for ultra-high-speed connectivity over an end-to-end broadband network.
“This ambitious project is a great example of the innovation potential that can be realized by connecting smart infrastructure over private wireless networking,” said Suparno Banerjee, head of government and cities, Nokia Enterprise. “In Leuven, the traditional streetlight now has the potential to transform into smart infrastructure – improving not only its own performance, but also enabling future city public utilities and services that contribute to a sustainable digital society.”
The Digital City Pole project is supported by the Flemish Government and the EU Agency for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
“The City of Leuven is fully supportive of the project. With Leuven recently selected as the European Capital of Innovation 2020, this is another great example of how we bring ideas to life,” said Mohamed Ridouani, Mayor of Leuven. “We have the necessary framework to transform ideas into reality, with an extensive ecosystem of talented partners and innovative business models. Leuven will promote the construction of new infrastructure, in order to make Leuven and the Flanders region more intelligent and digitalized.”