Las Vegas to work with AT&T to illuminate downtown

A six-month pilot program is aimed at creating a smart lighting network and reducing energy use in downtown Las Vegas.

The city is partnering with AT&T and technology company Ubicquia to illuminate parts of the Las Vegas Innovation District, using existing streetlight infrastructure. The network will be used in locations on Main Street and Las Vegas Boulevard, near University Medical Center and in residential areas, an AT&T spokesman said.

AT&T will integrate its secure, wireless LTE and LTE-M networks with Ubicquia’s smart lighting platform and, in near real time, the platform will be able to monitor energy use and outages to improve streetlight maintenance, AT&T said.

“Safety and sustainability are priorities for the city of Las Vegas, and technology is playing a key role in creating safer and increasingly efficient communities,” Michael Lee Sherwood, the city’s director of innovation and technology, said in a statement.

The move is another step toward “smart city” operations for officials who set out nearly three years ago to technologically optimize a broad swath of downtown. With the creation of the innovation district, efforts have included a test launch of an autonomous electric shuttle and beefing up infrastructure with fiber optic cable, a wireless network and a GPS base station network.

As part of the program, AT&T will replace existing photocells with Ubicquia’s Ubicell streetlight routers. The Ubicell will connect to air quality sensors to record and deliver near real-time data on temperature changes, ozone and particulate levels based on time of day, traffic and construction.

“We’re using IoT technology to measure and monitor air quality in the downtown area, while also reducing energy used during the daytime hours,” Mike Zeto, the vice president and general manager of smart cities for AT&T, said in a statement.

Ian Aaron, Ubicquia’s chief executive officer, called the pilot a “great example” of how existing streetlight infrastructure can be used to “easily deploy smart city technology that solves real problems.”

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Contact Shea Johnson at sjohnson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272. Follow @Shea_LVRJ on Twitter.