Liberty Global has become a founding member of a new alliance aimed at promoting Light Communications technology, which has the potential to deliver massive bandwidth and higher speeds for short-range wireless communications, alongside traditional wireless technology such as WiFi.

The Light Communications Alliance (LCA) will establish standards for this emerging industry, which can be deployed in various environments, both professional and domestic, including smart offices, smart transport, industry 4.0 and in the smart gigabit connected home of the future.

The other founding members of the LCA are Nokia, Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du), LEDVANCE, Lucibel, Orange, pureLiFi, LiFi Research & Development Centre, Velmenni, Zero.1, CEA Leti, and Institut Mines-Télécom.

The LCA will highlight the benefits, use cases and timelines for the adoption of Light Communications technology and align innovative leaders across the industries that light and communications touch, defining standards for education, communication, and interoperability.

Light Communication technology includes Light Fidelity (LiFi) and Optical Camera Communications (OCC), both of which have been attracting increased attention over recent years within several industries, such as smart cities and homes, industry 4.0 and manufacturing environments, as well as retail and tourism.

Global Market Insights predicts that the LiFi market will be worth $75 billion by 2025, creating broad, far-reaching opportunities for the related industries to benefit from Visible Light Communications.

Optical Camera Communications (OCC), has the potential to create value-added services by using the light for both broadcast communications and indoor positioning in environments such as office buildings, convention centres, and parking lots.

Light communication technology can offer thousands of additional channels for secure high-speed communications. It provides faster more reliable connections, as well as greater security because light can be contained, for example inside buildings.

The LCA is open to membership from all industries spanning both light and communications including chip manufacturers, OEMs, network operators, lighting manufacturers, and light communications innovators.

To learn more about the LCA, visit: www.LightCommunications.org