One of the critical questions in the current era is how to provide broadband internet for all and second how to realise the digitally connected city of the future. The Covid-19 pandemic painfully exposed a crisis of internet access in many low-income and rural areas in the world.
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One of the critical questions in the current era is how to provide broadband internet for all and second how to realise the digitally connected city of the future. The Covid-19 pandemic painfully exposed a crisis of internet access in many low-income and rural areas in the world. While many people in the Western world could easily shift to teleworking and online education, still 3.7 billion people worldwide do not have access to reliable and high-speed internet (United Nations, 2021). Terragraph, an intellectual property technology that emerged from the Facebook Connectivity group, aims to bridge this digital divide and has a mission to bring more people online to a faster internet. This thesis is executed at BrightSites, a technology venture within Signify. It is the result of almost six months of work covering multiple domains in the intelligent street lighting industry. The main research question of this thesis was to analyse the role of Gbit luminaires in the digitally connected city of the future. Gbit luminaires are innovative fixtures that can enable wireless connectivity on the outdoor lighting grid. These fixtures can provide fibre-like speeds due to the incorporation of mmWave radios that utilise Terragraphs' technology. One of the research outcomes is a theoretical framework that shows stakeholders value capture and value creation motivations. In this project context, value capture is defined as how a particular stakeholder wants to be rewarded for becoming part of the Gbit luminaire ecosystem. On the other hand, value creation is defined as how a specific stakeholder can deliver value and strengthen the Gbit luminaire ecosystem. The findings show that the Gbit luminaire is part of a conservative regulatory environment in an interdependent ecosystem. Furthermore, the framework sheds some new light on the gaps between BrightSites, market players and municipalities. In the Gbit luminaire ecosystem, the following gaps are perceived: 1. The value gap, 2. The knowledge gap, 3. The financial gap, and 4. The urgency gap. The opportunities for technology-driven organisations to solve gaps and prepare for the future lay in user-centred roadmaps. The type of roadmap developed in this project is a design roadmap, which is still limited in use but getting more attention in the literature and across industries. Design roadmaps differ from traditional technology or product roadmaps as it centres on end-user's values, rather than the technology portfolio and organisational goals. The design roadmap is developed from a European municipal decision-maker perspective while considering the shared desirability in the ecosystem. The main conclusion that can be drafted is that the product proposition should be perceived, developed and pitched from an ecosystem level. In addition, the author suggests that the (Gbit) luminaire should be positioned as a hosting solution rather than a wireless fibre extender. The main argument is that every stakeholder in the Gbit luminaire ecosystem should feel that a specific problem is solved since this is considered as the only way to succeed and achieve widespread deployment.