2021 may usher in an explosion of industry dividends, and the market for smart light poles with hundreds of billions is ready to take off!

"New infrastructure" has become the hottest word, and the "fast forward button" of 5G base station construction has been pressed in many places. The "China Mobile Economic Development Report 2020" released by GSMA predicts that China‘s 5G user penetration rate will increase to nearly 50% by 2025. Other major 5G markets such as South Korea, Japan and the United States are comparable.

It is understood that micro base stations are an indispensable supplement to 5G networking, and smart light poles, as the best carrying method for 5G micro base stations, have attracted many companies to rush to the beach. As a new entrance to the Internet of Everything in the city, smart street lights will usher in an explosive period of industry dividends in 2021, and a market of 100 billion yuan has already opened.

                                              

The construction of smart light poles carrying 5G micro base stations will accelerate

At the beginning of March this year, the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee proposed to "accelerate the construction of major projects and infrastructures that have been clearly defined in the national plan, and accelerate the progress of new infrastructure construction such as 5G networks and data centers", in which 5G construction has become the "leader."

It is understood that compared with the development goals announced last year, Shanghai, Guangdong and other places have accelerated the pace of 5G base station construction this year.

According to the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, "Shanghai will do a good job in resuming work and production in the information and communications industry, and fully start the construction of 5G networks in 2020." Completed in the year".

Guangdong has also pressed the "fast forward button" for the construction of 5G base stations. The 2020 Guangdong Information and Communication Industry Working Conference revealed that due to the impact of the epidemic, the target will be adjusted accordingly. Guangdong is expected to complete the construction of 50,000 5G base stations by the end of the third quarter of this year, and strive to build 60,000 throughout the year. Prior to the 2020 Guangdong Provincial Government Work Report plan, Guangdong will build 48,000 5G base stations within this year.

Industry insiders said that after the epidemic, 5G construction will usher in a period of accelerated development, and smart light poles that carry 5G micro base stations will be the direct beneficiaries of the new infrastructure wave.

Compared with the large-scale tower-shaped macro base station, the micro base station is a smaller device. For example, the equipment produced by Huawei can reach less than 20 kilograms. As 5G base stations need to use high-frequency communication and support large-capacity and high-speed requirements, a large number of micro-base stations will be required to complete network coverage. In the process of base station construction, there are challenges such as difficulty in obtaining site sites, high churn rate, and limited roof load capacity. Street lights are not only densely distributed, but also have independent pipe networks and dedicated power supply. Street light poles are expected to become an important resource for the construction of 5G base stations. In the future, the proportion of micro base stations and smart light poles will also increase. In fact, in order to support the construction of 5G networks, many local governments have issued documents to open up public facilities, including the provision of street light poles, for the construction of 5G micro base stations.

At present, multi-functional integrated smart street light projects are being implemented one after another. For example, the smart street light poles at West Lake in Hangzhou were unveiled, the smart street light poles on Guangzhou Tianhe South 2nd Road can charge mobile phones, and the first batch of DC smart street light projects in Xiong‘an New District landed. In addition to the beautiful shape, these smart street light poles also bring together multiple functions such as lighting control, LED screen display, 5G base station, smart alarm, etc., and become a beautiful landscape in the city.

 Three types of enterprises grab the beach

In the past few years, China Sports Technology (603679.SH), Mingjiahui (300506.SZ), Op Lighting (603515.SH), Huawei, ZTE (000063.SZ), Unilumin Technology (300232.SZ), Alto Electronics (002587.SZ), Wanrun Technology (002654.SZ), Shuzhi Technology (300038.SZ), Hongli Zhihui (300219.SZ), etc. have deployed smart light pole tracks. According to statistics from the "Market Research Report on Smart Light Pole Industry in 2019", there are no less than 400 companies claiming to have "smart light poles", but not many companies have real projects. According to an analysis by an industry insider, companies in the field of smart light poles are currently divided into three categories, one is traditional street lamp-related companies, the other is communications and Internet technology giants, and the third is cross-border players from the fields of security, display screens, and charging piles.

The landscape lighting "veteran" Mingjiahui launched a smart pole model demonstration project in Lu‘an, Anhui in 2019. The smart pole is equipped with 14 kinds of sensors, which can realize public security monitoring, smart parking, car charging, and video intercom. Mingjiahui also won the bid for the Liaoning Shenbei Wisdom Street Light Construction Management Co., Ltd. project in 2019. This is the first PPP smart street light pole project in China to enter the national financial database. In June last year, Mingjiahui attracted a strategic stake in China Xinxing Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of General Technology Group.

As communications giants, Huawei and ZTE have become "promoters" in the smart light pole industry. Huawei entered the field of smart lighting in March 2018 and released the industry‘s first multi-level intelligent control lighting IoT solution. However, Huawei did not go deep into the hardware level of "lights" and "poles", leaving professional companies to do the professional work.

After 2020, the construction of micro base stations will take shape

The smart light pole industry has begun to sprout as early as 2014, but the number of applications is not large. In 2016, the technology is gradually improving. Smart light poles have functional modules such as smart lighting, communication base stations, micro-weather monitoring, video monitoring, Wi-Fi coverage, LED information display, public broadcasting, and charging piles. From 2017 to 2018, the development of smart light poles slowed down. An industry insider analyzed that the main reason is that the cost of a single smart light pole is as high as 30,000 to 80,000 yuan per pole, but the profit model is still unclear, and the operating authority is not clear.

In 2019, the promotion of policies and the formation of provincial and regional industry norms will promote a new wave of landing in the smart light pole industry. In April 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission jointly issued the "Implementation Opinions on Promoting the Joint Construction and Sharing of Telecommunications Infrastructure in 2019", which proposed "encourage basic telecommunications companies and tower companies to intensively use existing base station sites, street light poles, monitoring poles, etc. Public facilities, reserve 5G site resources in advance". In August 2019, the first provincial standard in China, the "Technical Specifications for Smart Light Pole" in Guangdong Province, was implemented, and the 79-page "Technical Specifications for Smart Light Pole" in Guangdong Province was designed, constructed, inspected and accepted for smart light pole systems. Provisions are made for operation and maintenance.

A private equity investment manager analyzed that in the 5G era, the networking mode of "macro base station as main and micro base station as secondary" can effectively solve the scene problems of ultra-high traffic density, ultra-high data connection density and wide coverage brought about by 5G networks . In the initial stage of 5G construction, communication operators will focus on the construction of macro base stations. After 2020, the construction of light pole base stations and other micro stations will gradually take shape. In smart light poles, LED modules, micro base stations, monitoring, single lamp controllers and other modules all need mature manufacturers. Professional division of labor and modular design is the only way for mature industrial products.

The Huatai Securities Research Report pointed out that smart light poles are an integral part of the construction of smart cities, and policies accelerate the promotion of multi-pole integration rectification projects. Smart light poles are a new information foundation that integrates functions such as cameras, advertising screens, charging piles, and small base stations. Facilities can collect, publish and transmit information from multiple industries such as lighting, public security, municipal administration, meteorology, environmental protection, and communications. At the same time, smart light poles will be widely used as an important part of the construction of car networking, cloud network construction and communication network construction in the 5G era.

The latest survey data of the research institution ABI Research speculates that by 2019 and 2020 the number of outdoor pole stations in the world will exceed 3 million and 4 million, with a compound annual growth rate of 48%, far exceeding the increase of traditional tower stations and rooftop tower stations. speed. According to the forecast of Navigant Research, according to the number of outdoor small base stations required for the full completion of the 5G communication network and the cost forecast of the assembly and upgrade of a single smart light pole, the comprehensive construction and commercial use of the 5G network in the future will give birth to a 100 billion-level smart light pole market.

An industrial revolution is unfolding, and the smart light pole industry is poised to take off.