Costly but Impractical? Why Some Smart Streetlight Functions Become Mere Decorations
At the recent Central Urban Work Conference, new directions and requirements were set for “building efficient and convenient smart cities.” According to investigations , in recent years, many regions across China have been actively promoting smart streetlight projects as part of their smart city initiatives, aiming to achieve the goal of “one pole, multiple functions.”
However, in some places, the construction of smart streetlights has become more of a trend-following exercise rather than a response to real needs. Problems such as a mismatch between functions and actual demand, features turning into mere decorations, and insufficient post-installation maintenance have become increasingly apparent.
Multiple Regions Accelerate Deployment of Smart Streetlight Projects
In May, Longyao County in Xingtai City, Hebei Province, announced plans to install a large number of photovoltaic and wind-powered 5G smart streetlights along with supporting infrastructure — approximately 20,000 integrated smart poles. The project, with a provisional contract value exceeding 2.27 billion yuan, was awarded to China Railway Beijing Engineering Bureau Group Co., Ltd.
In July, Xinlin District of the Greater Khingan Range in Heilongjiang Province began construction of about 20,000 integrated 5G smart streetlights along local roads. Each standard pole is equipped with a 10 kW hybrid micro wind and photovoltaic generator, providing electricity for lighting while feeding excess power into the grid. The total investment exceeds 1.3 billion yuan. That same month, Binyang County in Guangxi Province completed the tendering process for its 5G wind-solar hybrid smart streetlight project, which also involves around 20,000 units with integrated optical and new energy systems, totaling 2.2 billion yuan in investment.
A review of public information from platforms such as the China Tendering and Procurement Network and the China Lighting Network reveals that many regions across China are accelerating the deployment of smart streetlight pole projects.
In September 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and seven other departments jointly issued the Three-Year Action Plan for the Construction of New IoT Infrastructure (2021–2023), which explicitly called for the promotion and large-scale deployment of smart lamp posts and other sensing terminals within smart city development initiatives. Consequently, many local governments have incorporated smart streetlight poles into their smart city construction projects.
As a new type of public infrastructure, smart streetlight poles stand out from traditional ones with their multi-functionality and higher cost. They integrate technologies such as LED lighting, wireless communication, sensors, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, enabling the collection, release, and transmission of data across multiple urban sectors — including lighting, public security, municipal services, meteorology, environmental protection, and communications. By consolidating multiple functions into one structure (“multi-pole integration”), smart poles help reduce urban pole clutter, enhance precision management across city systems, and promote the efficient utilization of urban resources.
In terms of cost, the construction expense for a single smart streetlight pole typically ranges from tens of thousands to over one hundred thousand RMB, depending on its configuration and functions. For example, in the smart new-energy streetlight project in Binyang County, Guangxi, the average investment per smart streetlight pole and its supporting facilities reached approximately 110,000 RMB. Similarly, in one district of a southwestern city, the 2022 environmental improvement and cultural greenway project included a 10.24-kilometer smart lighting and urban IoT system, covering components such as lighting fixtures, management modules, and network switches. The total budget was 39.76 million RMB, translating to an average cost of more than 3.88 million RMB per kilometer.
Pursuing Excess, Focusing on Appearance Over Substance, and Overlapping Management
Although China’s smart light pole construction has entered the “fast track,” it is still in its early stages. In some regions, tendencies such as pursuing excessive functions, prioritizing form over practicality, and fragmented management have already emerged — issues that require early attention and correction. For instance, on a 600-meter stretch of road in a southwestern city, 53 multifunctional smart poles were installed and promoted as a model for local smart city development, claiming to offer a wide range of functions. However, many residents working nearby reported that the installation density was too high, leading to resource waste. Features such as electronic display screens and charging ports for e-bikes and mobile phones were found to be disconnected from actual user needs.
Multiple investigations conducted this year have found that the vast majority of smart light poles only perform basic lighting and surveillance functions. Some poles are equipped with charging ports for mobile phones and electric vehicles, yet there are no designated parking spaces nearby, and the charging ports are not powered.
“One section of the street has poles installed too densely — when both the electronic display screens and lights are on, the brightness is overwhelming, making the night feel like daytime, and the broadcast volume is uncomfortably loud,” said a local resident working nearby. “The display screens were only lit for a short time to advertise rental of ad space, but the excessive light and noise caused pollution. Eventually, they were shut down, and to this day, no businesses have placed any ads.”
In some regions, the one-touch emergency buttons on smart poles are unresponsive, and many features are either unused or nonfunctional. For instance, in a park in a southwestern city, 40 smart light poles were installed. According to public information, these poles were designed to provide lighting, multifunctional cameras, traffic indicators, real-time data display, one-touch emergency alerts, and personnel tracking. However, a recent field visit revealed that most of the poles are now idle. “The park already had streetlights — adding these poles is unnecessary and flashy,” said a local resident. “I’ve never seen the screens turned on. Nowadays, everyone has a mobile phone, so features like one-touch alarms are basically useless.”
When it comes to management and maintenance, the fact that “one pole involves multiple departments” has become a major obstacle and potential risk. Experts point out that since the various devices attached to smart poles fall under different administrative departments — each with its own management systems and operational needs — lack of coordination and delayed communication often occur. This multi-layered management structure complicates post-installation maintenance and oversight. Moreover, from the current application perspective, key functions such as 5G connectivity, charging, and advertising lack sustainable profit models, resulting in low overall profitability. Consequently, it is difficult to recover the high upfront investment costs in the short term.
In July 2024, the Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau of a certain eastern city stated in its response to Proposal No. 428 of the 3rd Session of the 12th CPPCC that during the implementation of smart light pole projects, the involvement of multiple departments and fields — including municipal administration, communications, transportation, lighting, and signage — has led to a situation where “many dragons manage one river, each taking a scoop of water.” This has made coordination over operations, maintenance, and data ownership extremely difficult, and a unified effort has yet to be formed. At the same time, smart light poles have not yet found a core application scenario. Apart from displaying advertisements, most of their functions serve government departments and provide mainly social benefits, making it difficult to promote such projects solely through government initiatives.
Build Rationally and Create a Healthy Development Cycle
Given the emerging issues of overambitious planning, superficial design, and fragmented management in some smart light pole projects, investment planning should align closely with national strategies, local needs, and resource conditions, avoiding “advancement for advancement's sake.”
Experts suggest focusing on practical needs in areas such as transportation, lighting, environmental protection, public safety, urban governance, and public services, to determine reasonable construction scales and investment paces. Projects should avoid function stacking and unnecessary “one-step” implementation; instead, they should match regional characteristics with specific applications, prioritizing the integration of urgently needed functional modules.
A well-structured revenue plan is essential to establish a virtuous investment cycle. Industry insiders recommend introducing private and social capital to improve financial flexibility. Since smart light pole operations can last 10 to 30 years, it is crucial to plan short-, medium-, and long-term returns, and to base phased investments on actual revenue streams. They also advocate establishing a sound investment return evaluation mechanism to ensure financial safety and sustainable operation. For mature projects, equity transfers, public listings, or other asset exit strategies can be used to realize capital recovery and monetization.
