Initiative will focus on applications including public safety, smart transit and autonomous cars
Nokia and Smart City Capital are launching a joint program to help Canadian cities fund and reduce the risks associated with smart city initiatives.
With available project funding from Smart City Capital exceeding $1.6 billion, this program complements the Smart Cities Challenge program launched by Infrastructure Canada earlier this year, Nokia said.
Under this initiative, Nokia and Smart City Capital have created a partner ecosystem that includes suppliers of a broad range of technology solutions, standardized and scalable communications network infrastructure and platforms, as well as architecture and engineering services. The two partners said that this ecosystem is designed to help facilitate the adoption of smart city applications in areas including public safety, smart transit, autonomous vehicle and vehicle-to-everything technology, among others.
“Funding is a major stumbling block for government entities embarking on the journey of a smart city transformation. With our partner Smart City Capital, we bring our global expertise and the capital necessary to successfully execute and deliver smart city projects, across Canada,” said Shawn Sparling, head of enterprise sales, Canada for Nokia.
“Nokia’s growing expertise in smart city deployments and project management, coupled with our strong funding base and innovative funding model, puts us in an ideal position to help simplify, expedite, and increase the adoption of smart, safe, and sustainable smart city deployments throughout the country,” said Oscar Bode, CEO of Smart City Capital.
Nokia is engaged in several smart city initiatives around the world. In May 2017, the European vendor joined the “Smart Tampere” initiative, which aims to create a smart city project in Tampere, Finland. The Smart Tampere project includes local companies, non-governmental organizations, local government and citizens exploring how digital technologies can be implemented in areas such as smart mobility, e-health, smart lighting, smart energy, extended user experience and more.
Nokia said that Smart Tampere is a city-wide economic policy intended to create a living lab in which technology solutions can be explored, tested and ultimately deployed to improve the lives of citizens and make the city more attractive to businesses and visitors. The project aims to create a fully smart city by 2030, the vendor added. Nokia said it will provide its expertise in key technologies in areas such as 5G and the internet of things.
In February this year, Nokia unveiled its new IoT for Smart Cities solution, which is a fully-integrated, modular and scalable framework, which enables operators and master systems integrators to take advantage of unified smart city management.
Nokia highlighted that this solution is powered by cross-application data sharing, analytics and automation. Nokia said that its Integrated Operations Center can orchestrate a city’s technology and drive revenue as well as save costs. Blueprint applications include video surveillance, smart lighting, parking, waste management, and environmental sensing.
