Telecom operator Vodafone Idea (VIL) and smart world and communication business of engineering and construction conglomerate Larsen and Toubro (L&T) have joined hands for a pilot project to test 5G-based smart city solutions, according to a statement. This is part of the ongoing 5G trials on government-allocated spectrum.

Announcing the collaboration in a joint statement, the companies said the pilot project would be set up in Pune on government-allocated 5G spectrum to visualise and analyse smart city applications. The companies will collaborate to test and validate 5G use cases built on Internet of Things (IoT), Video AI (Artificial Intelligence) technologies leveraging L&T's Smart City platform - fusion, addressing the challenges of urbanisation, safety and security and offering smart solutions to the citizens.

Vodafone Idea's Chief Enterprise Business Officer, Abhijit Kishore said, telecom solutions are the backbone of building smart and sustainable cities. "The advent of 5G technology opens whole new opportunities to address challenges of urban growth and provide end-to-end solutions to support sustainable creation of smart cities, in the future," Kishore further said.

VIL has been allocated 26 GHz and 3.5 GHz spectrum in the mmWave band by the Telecom Department, for their 5G network trials and use cases. The telecom company has also achieved peak download speeds of up to 1.5 Gbps in 3.5 Ghz band 5G trial network with its original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners.

The high speed and low latency characteristics of 5G network enables capabilities such as improved surveillance and video streaming/broadcast to permit the evolution of 5G smart cities and smart factories. "In this constantly-evolving world, we are seeing an exponential rise in demand for smarter and more intelligent solutions and L&T Smart World is committed towards leveraging the latest technological innovations in the IoT and telecommunications areas to benefit society at large," J D Patil, whole time director and senior executive vice president (Defence and Smart Technologies) at L&T said.