A total of 25 companies in Taiwan have newly formed a 5G Smart Pole Standard Promotion Alliance, aiming to draft technological standards and tap huge smart-city business opportunities worldwide.

The alliance's first chairman will be TH Tung, honorary chairman of Taipei Computer Association (TCA) and chairman of Pegatron. Other founding members include Compal Electronics, Asustek Computer, Delta Electronics, Chunghwa Telecom (CHT), Far EasTone Telecom, Sercomm, Unizyx Holding and Alpha Networks.

Tung said the alliance has completed draft standards for the 5G smart street pole industry, and they will be adjusted on a rolling basis to go in line with the latest standards released by IEEE and 3GPP. Through the alliance's efforts, Tung hopes that Taiwan can eventually become a crucial part of the supply chain of global 5G smart street poles and an important promoter of industry standards.

The alliance will also move to incorporate 5G transmission and edge computing technologies and introduce well-rounded specs and testing requirements that can live up to international levels, eventually to roll out total smart city solutions for applications in Taiwan and abroad, according to Tung.

Tung stressed that Taiwan boasts strong 3C supply chains and is in pole position to explore immense 5G smart city business opportunities through concerted efforts by industry and government sectors in deepening 5G and AIoT applications.

Navigant statistics show that there are around 360 million streetlights worldwide, but only 7.2 million or 2% of them have adopted smart poles for the moment, with over 90 million smart poles, valued at over US$7 billion, expected to be installed by 2028.

To cash in on the opportunities, Tung said, Taiwan makers can first jointly set up pilot zones featuring 5G smart poles that can not only serve as street lights but also many other purposes such as traffic signals, bus stops, and diverse environment monitoring devices, Wi-Fi/IP CAM systems, charging systems and even seismographic sensors.

By DIGITIMES