Philips Lighting, a Royal Philips company and the global leader in lighting, announced today a new agreement for Vodafone to become a global Internet of Things (IoT) managed connectivity partner. Under the agreement, the two companies will enable city authorities worldwide to implement connected street lighting systems which will be connected wirelessly, saving energy and making maintenance easier and more efficient.

The Philips CityTouch street lighting management system will use Vodafone’s world-leading machine-to-machine (M2M) network to connect individual light points. Every connected street lamp will contain a Vodafone M2M SIM. City authorities can then monitor and manage lighting through the user-friendly and highly flexible Philips CityTouch system while engineers will be able to check performance, identify faults and control the lighting remotely.

The joint offering allows city authorities to create an infrastructure that is easily scalable, and will be able to support other smart city applications in future.

Vodafone M2M Director, Erik Brenneis, said: “Lighting plays a key role in the smart city. Our agreement with Philips will see this technology transforming cities across the world backed by Vodafone's world-leading innovation, technologies and networks.”

Bill Bien, SVP, Head of Strategy and Marketing, at Philips Lighting added: “Just less than 12% of the world’s street lights are LED and less than 2% are connected. We are at the start of a new era which will see highly energy efficient connected street lighting become the backbone of most smart cities. Robust, reliable wireless connectivity will help make this happen, linking streetlights with sensors, devices and management systems. By partnering with Vodafone we can work together to take light beyond illumination, helping to make cities more energy efficient, more livable and giving people an increased sense of safety.”