Nokia has struck a deal with the Polish city of Wroclaw to deliver new smart city services across healthcare, transport, education, security and local business incubation.
Wrocław, on the Oder River in western Poland, will deploy an open data integration platform from Nokia, bundled up by the Finnish vendor as a ‘City as a Platform’. The city will be able to manage city services and infrastructure from the platform; third parties will be able to test and deploy applications and services on top, said Nokia.
The city will install IoT sensors in collaboration with the city’s healthcare functions for remote monitoring of devices and patients. Care services for the elderly and disabled have been cited as early candidates. Nokia said it will enable a “continuum of connected care services”.
The scope of work also covers ways sensors and analytics can improve access to public transport and to reduce congestion and pollution, and how to enhance emergency response and coordination between city agencies. It will seek to foster innovation in the city itself, tapping into a “secure knowledge ecosystem” of academic institutions, start-ups, and corporations.
Nokia is putting forward its startup incubator, Le Garage, as a source, as well. Le Garage was launched four years ago by Nokia Bell Labs in Villarceaux, in France, as a facility to “connect and catalyze” tech projects that do not fit the mainstream product lines. It includes an incubation programme and an acceleration program for prototyping and development of early-stage innovation projects.
Bell Labs, in New Jersey, is involved, as is the Santa Fe Institute, an independent research facility based in New Mexico. Jakub Mazur, vice-mayor of Wroclaw, commented: “We can exchange knowledge and technology between centres around the world and benefit the economic development of our city.”
He said all innovations will put citizens first. “The direct beneficiary will be city inhabitants. Our priority as we develop the concept of a smart city is to improve citizens’ quality of life.”
Chris Johnson, senior vice president of global enterprise sales at Nokia said: “Cities need to keep pace, embrace the growth possibilities, both economically and operationally, and take smart city thinking to the next level. Our approach provides the vision and tools to develop and continuously innovate to address and solve challenges. It allows cities to address their own unique strategic ambitions to deliver superior services for their citizens.”
