American Tower (ATC) and Philips Lighting are developing 4G/5G enabled LED smart light pole for use in roadways, streets and parking lots to improve wireless broadband access in dense urban areas while providing connected LED lighting.

The agreement between American Tower Corporation and Philips Lighting will accelerate the digital transformation of urban spaces and the adoption of smart city services in the United States.

Philips Lighting and American Tower will demo the lighting and wireless infrastructure technology at the 2017 Mobile World Congress Americas.

Olivia Qiu, chief innovation officer at Philips Lighting and Steven Marshall, president U.S. Tower, a division of American Tower Corporation, are driving the new alliance.

“Our alliance with Philips Lighting brings Wireless Carriers access to premium pre-approved sites, with a smart pole that aesthetically blends into urban locations, delivering wireless broadband hidden in plain sight,” said Steven Marshall, president U.S. Tower, a division of American Tower Corporation.

Less than 1 percent of the more than 44 million light poles on US streets and roadways are connected, according to Strategies Unlimited.

The new smart pole is designed to gain from a city’s existing real estate and collocate services from multiple Wireless Carriers in a single pole.

Smart poles are designed to help smart cities deliver new and future digital applications including enhanced emergency services, acoustic sensing, air quality monitoring and autonomous vehicle navigation, to name a few.

The new smart pole, equipped with an integrated antenna, will collocate multiple Wireless Carriers in a single structure and can accommodate a variety of radio configurations from various major OEMs.

Multiple wireless carriers can install radio equipment including 4G and 5G small cell radio equipment with the plug-n-play design.