Finland's 5G plans: 'We want to build world's smartest road'

Finland's 5G plans: 'We want to build world's smartest road'

LED-light poles, base stations, and antennas will create a 5G network with uses ranging from self-driving cars to helping avoid moose collisions.

Finnish businesses and local government have a bold plan. They want to build the smartest road in the world.

It will use 5G technology and cover a 31km (19-mile) stretch of Route 51, between the towns of Siuntio and Karjaa in Inkoo municipality, 54km (34 miles) west of Helsinki on the south coast of Finland.

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The municipality will be working in partnership with Karis Telefon and TammisaarenEnergia, with Nokia providing the 5G technology in the form of smart light poles.

Developed as part of its LuxTurrim5G project, each LED-light pole can be equipped with base stations and antennas that function together to create a 5G network. The proposed smart road will have a total of 620 such light poles, although they will only be connected to the network in stages.

Robert Nyman, the mayor of Inkoo, is keen to stress that the project is still in its infancy, and they "don't yet have a concrete plan" for its implementation. This vagueness is partly because it is the state — rather than the municipality — that will make the final decision on the main road's future development.

It is also because there is no funding yet in place for the project, although Nyman estimates that the basic infrastructure would cost only €2m ($2.26m). One promising source of financial support is Business Finland, whose Smart Mobility fund for Finnish businesses transforming the transport sector totals €50m ($57m).

If the project gets the green light, the digitalized main road will allow for the testing of self-driving cars through the Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything platform (C-V2X) installed in the light poles.

Read more : https://www.zdnet.com/article/finlands-5g-plans-we-want-to-build-worlds-smartest-road/