Gcore: €3.1M EU-backed SmartSpires project pilots AI smart city servicesLaunching in Belval, 5G, edge computing, and IoT technologies will underpin AI-enabled services

LUXEMBOURG, June 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- SmartSpires, a 3.1-million-euro initiative co-funded by the EU's Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), aims to turn Luxembourg's Belval campus into a smart city living lab – a blueprint for cities across Europe. Led by a public-private consortium, including 5SKYE, Gcore, the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, and Orange Luxembourg, the three-year project will demonstrate how digital infrastructure and AI can power safer, cleaner, and more efficient urban services for residents and local authorities.

The project was presented at a press conference on 4 June 2025 at the Maison de l'Innovation in Belval, attended by Elisabeth Margue, Minister Delegate to the Prime Minister for Media and Connectivity.

A living lab for mobility, safety and sustainability

SmartSpires aims to combine densified 5G connectivity with edge computing infrastructure to enable AI-driven and IoT-based services in ultra low-latency environments. The project will deploy at least three smart towers, each equipped with 5G for advanced connectivity, computing for local AI and edge applications, IoT sensors, and various local add-ons to support innovative use-cases in the campus. These towers will form the backbone for real-time and data-intensive applications that enhance urban management and services, offering a scalable model for European cities seeking to integrate advanced 5G, edge computing, and IoT solutions

What sets this initiative apart is the integration of connectivity, computing and edge intelligence within a single infrastructure, enabling local data processing and decision-making. This approach reduces latency, optimises energy consumption, and enhances data governance, as sensitive information can be processed closer to its source. It also opens the door for entirely new classes of applications that require real-time responses and high-bandwidth data streams, which would be impractical or inefficient to handle in conventional cloud-based architectures.

Four key smart city use cases

At the heart of the initiative are four key smart city use cases, currently being specified and developed in close collaboration with local stakeholders. On one side, this includes Fonds Belval and Agora—two central partners with whom discussions are underway regarding infrastructure deployment, with plans to extend engagement to the relevant communes to ensure alignment with local needs and priorities. On the other, vertical stakeholders are actively involved and contributing to the definition of the use cases. A Smart City Living Lab, operated by LIST, will serve as an experimentation platform for testing and scaling new 5G-enabled urban solutions.

In parallel, three additional use-cases are targeted to directly exploit the smart towers: mobility services will leverage 5G and edge computing to improve public transportation and traffic management; crowd analytics will enhance public safety and urban planning by analysing the real-time flow of people and traffic; and waste management will leverage IoT sensors and local processing to optimise collection and recycling processes. Developing these applications will involve engaging a wide range of stakeholders including the general public, startups, and researchers. Together, these technologies aim to create tangible benefits for Belval and its surrounding communities, while also providing a replicable blueprint for other European cities.

"The launch of SmartSpires is a significant milestone in Luxembourg's digital transformation journey. This initiative transforms Belval into a living laboratory for the smart cities of the future by integrating cutting-edge 5G connectivity, peripheral computing, and AI. While the project involves testing technologies, its true purpose is more about improving lives, enhancing sustainability, and shaping how cities across Europe can evolve in a more intelligent and responsive way. I am thrilled that Luxembourg is at the forefront of this digital innovation, thanks to the EU's support and the strong public-private collaboration," stated Elisabeth Margue, Luxembourg Minister Delegate to the Prime Minister for Media and Connectivity.

A strong technical consortium

The SmartSpires consortium brings together four key players: 5SKYE deploys and maintains multifunctional smart infrastructure that acts as a neutral host, integrating densified 5G, mini edge compute capability, digital signage and AI-based CCTV analytics; Gcore, as Project Coordinator, coordinates the project and leads edge infrastructure deployment; LIST, as Technical Coordinator, coordinates the technical design, operationalisation and evaluation of the use cases, and oversees the Belval Living Lab; and Orange Luxembourg provides the 5G network backbone.

While focused on Belval, the project's ambition is broader: to demonstrate how Europe's cities can build smarter, more connected communities through scalable, efficient infrastructure innovation.

About Gcore

Gcore is a global edge AI, cloud, network, and security solutions provider. Headquartered in Luxembourg, with a team of 600 operating from eight offices worldwide, Gcore provides solutions to global leaders in numerous industries. Gcore manages its global IT infrastructure across six continents, with one of the best network performances in Europe, Africa, and LATAM due to the average response time of 30 ms worldwide. Gcore's network consists of 180 points of presence worldwide in reliable Tier IV and Tier III data centers, with a total network capacity exceeding 200 Tbps.

Learn more at gcore.com

About LIST

The Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) is a research and technology organization (RTO) under the supervision of the Ministry of Research and Higher Education, and its mission is to develop competitive and market-oriented prototypes of products and services for public and private stakeholders.

With more than 750 employees, nearly 80% of whom are researchers or innovators from all over the world, LIST is active in the fields of information technology, materials, space resources and the environment, and works across the entire innovation chain, from basic and applied research to technology incubation and transfer.

By transforming scientific knowledge into intelligent technologies, data and tools, LIST:

• helps European citizens make informed choices
• helps public authorities make decisions
•  encourages companies to develop

For more information about the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, please visit: https://www.list.lu/

About Orange Communications Luxembourg

Orange Luxembourg is one of the major players in the telecommunications sector in Luxembourg, with its own 4G and 5G networks, as well as its own fiber internet infrastructure. The company offers postpaid and prepaid mobile services at fair prices for residential customers. Orange also provides multi-gigabit internet services via optics fiber, as well as a TV service on the Orange fiber network, which was named the top fiber network in Luxembourg in 2025 by the Ookla Institute.

On the corporate market, Orange offers mobile and fiber internet services for large and small companies. As an integrated communications operator, Orange Luxembourg also provides a wide portfolio of connectivity and mobility services, including offerings based on AI, big data, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Thanks to a partnership with Orange Cyberdefense and its 3,500 experts worldwide, Orange supports corporate clients in securing their digital activities.
Orange is an operator that cares about the quality of its network and infrastructure. The goal of providing a unique customer experience, with the best price-quality ratio, drives Orange employees daily to enable their customers to stay in touch with their loved ones, regardless of distance or communication means.

Orange Luxembourg and its parent company, Orange Belgium, serve more than 3 million customers in Belgium and Luxembourg, operating mobile and internet networks that are subject to continuous investment.

The Orange Group is present in more than 29 countries worldwide, connecting over 291 million customers (as of December 2024). It is one of Europe's and Africa's leading mobile and internet operators and a global leader in business telecommunications services.

For more information and details on Orange Luxembourg's offers, visit one of the Orange shops throughout Luxembourg or visit http://www.orange.lu.

About 5Skye

5SKYE is an infrastructure technology company, which designs, builds, and operates AI-driven edge infrastructure. We deploy modular, scalable micro data centres that empower smart cities, IoT ecosystems, and 5G applications with high-performance data solutions. Based in the Netherlands, 5SKYE operates throughout Europe and the Middle East.

To learn more, follow us on LinkedIn or visit www.5skye.com