Chinese vendor sees increasing penetration for its smart city solutions including government, grid and transport applications
Huawei is focusing on its safe city initiatives as the initial step before implementing large-scale smart city deployments, Joe So, head of Huawei’s global smart city initiatives, told Industrial IoT 5G Insights.
“Smart city is important to Huawei’s business strategy, but it is still too early to estimate the level of revenue they might generate for the business,” So said. “It is still early days and will take time for opportunities to be uncovered and implemented. Huawei sees safe city initiatives more realizable in the short term. Start with safe and then get smarter is the trend.”
Huawei is said to be seeing worldwide demand for safe city solutions at both national and municipal levels.
“National and municipal governments are showing interest and the number of smart city opportunities are growing, but we don’t expect this will happen overnight because of the scale of planning, research, design and execution before they become reality,” So said, adding the vendor is seeing an increasing penetration of its smart city portfolio including safe city solutions, smart e-government, smart grid and smart transportation.
Commenting on the opportunities in the Chinese market, So said Huawei is currently working with its partners to identify and deliver solutions for smart city initiatives. “There are currently more than 300 smart city initiatives in China alone, many with different requirements. No company can complete a smart city on its own,” he said.
Huawei perceives opportunities in the public safety, education and health care sectors in China. “Countries and cities face different pains. In Europe, green and renewable energy development are key, while in Latin America, safe city initiatives are key priorities,” So noted. “Governments in both developed and emerging countries are trying to adapt ICT to resolve their pains and become smarter and better societies and economies.”
Huawei claims its safe city solutions have been deployed in more than 100 cities across 30 countries.