Smart poles for Bhopal’s Smart City

Telecom tower company Bharti Infratel and Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson will be deploying the smart poles for the smart city project of Bhopal Smart City Development Corp Ltd (BSCDCL). This mega project will entail seven to eight projects on a Public Private Partnership model. The 400 smart poles will have surveillance cameras, environment sensors, digital signage system, EV Charging Points and WiFi access points. Powered by Ericsson’s Zero Site technology, the poles will also work as mobile sites. Public safety, electronic vehicle charging, energy efficiency and mobile broadband coverage are some of the needs of the smart city that will be covered by these poles. Bhopal will, thanks to the Ericsson solution, have a future-proof city network. This network will facilitate machine-tomachine communication among other uses. Bharti Infratel, on the other hand, will deploy 200kms of optical fiber network to back these poles. These will connect the government buildings and schools. BSCDCL also plans to give shape to its Smart School project through this network. After the poles are deployed, the WiFi services will be launched.

BSCDCL is a special purpose (SPV) vehicle specifically formed for the smart city mission in Bhopal. It will lease out the poles to telecom service providers in order to generate revenue and will also monetise the WiFi service, which will be delivered through 400 hotspots and 1000 access points.