Vodafone and lighting manufacturer Philips Lighting have entered into an agreement to become global internet of things (IoT) managed connectivity partners.

With this partnership, the two companies aim to revolutionise streetlight networks through wireless connection to the IoT.

The deal will allow the city authorities worldwide to deploy wirelessly connected smart street lighting systems. This will help conserve energy, and provide easier and more efficient maintenance.

The Philips CityTouch street lighting management system will be integrated with the machine-to-machine (M2M) network provided by Vodafone in a bid to connect every individual light point, which will have a Vodafone M2M subscriber identity module (SIM).

"Robust, reliable wireless connectivity will help make this happen, linking streetlights with sensors, devices and management systems."

City authorities can use the system to monitor and manage lighting in a simple and flexible way. Engineers will also be able to detect faults, check performance and remotely operate the lighting.

Serving as an end-to-end street lighting management system, Philips CityTouch combines connected devices to specialised services in order to transform the lighting operations of the cities.

The street lights across the cities are either linked through CityTouch-ready street luminaires or by adding a CityTouch connector node to the old street luminaires.

This connectivity offers several benefits that include an extra 30% to 40% power savings, as these connected lights can be controlled according to requirement, less maintenance cost and time, as well as automatic network setup and commissioning of the connected lights.

Once a CityTouch Ready luminaire or a connector node is deployed, it transmits location data and operational information securely over the Vodafone network.

Philips Lighting strategy and marketing SVP head Bill Bien said: "Just less than 12% of the world’s streetlights are LED and less than 2% are connected.

"We are at the start of a new era which will see highly energy-efficient connected street lighting become the backbone of most smart cities.

"Robust, reliable wireless connectivity will help make this happen, linking streetlights with sensors, devices and management systems."