BROWSING: Smart Cities

In the face of rising political disruption, the European Commission (EC) has in recent weeks redoubled its innovation schedule with new commitments to artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and digital healthcare applications. Here, we pick five of its best Horizon 2020 projects, covering everything from drone-mounted...

There are 355 smart city projects in 221 cities, according to a new report from Navigant Research; almost one in five now cut across multiple industry sectors, as smart city integration gathers pace. The total value of the smart cities market will more than...

Smart cities offer a wide range of benefits, from costs savings to livability, safety and security, resilience, and sustainability. However, the positive impact on economic development is another critical benefit, one which is not often mentioned and not well understood. However, economic development should...

Japanese company says blockchain will be key in the development of future smart cities   Fujitsu has opened its international blockchain innovation center in Brussels, Belgium in a move to explore how the technology can improve the design and implementation of smart cities. Fujitsu said that the...

The value of the smart cities market will pass $2 trillion by 2025 as artificial intelligence (AI) technologies become standardised in city functions and the final hurdle of inter-departmental integration is finally overcome, according to new research by Frost & Sullivan. Different regions are putting...

New York City has appointed its first chief privacy officer in an attempt to beef up its smart-city data privacy rules and compliance. Laura Negrón, a public service veteran with 40 years’ experience in non-profit and government sectors, has been appointed to the role. Negrón...

Belgian carrier Proximus has been appointed by the town of Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of southern Belgium, to establish a ‘living lab’ for civic-minded IoT applications and services. The joint project, between the city administration and the largest of the country’s three telecoms...

Unlicensed networks, mostly based on LoRa and Sigfox, make up two-thirds of low-power wide-area (LPWA) networks today, according to a study of 100 LPWA networks by IoT research firm ON World. A third of the total network deployments are geared towards smart city applications,...

Leaders said projects based on CityVerve smart city incubator The Manchester City Council has selected three companies to carry out smart city initiative trials across the U.K. city. The new trial projects are being launched through CityVerve, which is Manchester’s smart cities demonstration platform. The...

The government aims to produce detailed road maps for self-driving cars The South Korean government announced plans to set up a smart traffic system to enhance the safety of autonomous vehicles on the country’s roads, according to local press reports. South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure...

AUSTIN, Texas--Smart city deployments come in many forms with one of the most simple methods of imbuing a physical object with connectivity and interactive access being a contactless beacon. Connecthings, founded in 2007, is looking to contactless beacons—think QR codes, NFC, Bluetooth—as a way to...

The Nordic telecom group also joined a smart city initiative in Sweden to provide capabilities to test 5G and IoT Nordic telecommunications group Telia has launched a new smart traffic and urban planning solution. The service provider said the new tool identifies the movement patterns...

Mobility, public safety, healthcare and other connected services will save residents of smart cities 125 hours per year, study says A new study produced by Juniper Research and commissioned by Intel takes at look at how internet of things technologies leveraged to create smart cities...

Under the new contract, Orange will provide ICT and smart city services to Jeddah Tower, the world?s tallest building French company Orange Business Services has signed a smart city consulting agreement with Jeddah Economic Company to design ICT infrastructure and smart services at the world?s...

Officials focused on smart cities use cases as market, awareness matures Since launching its Spotlight Cities program in 2016, AT&T has moved from sponsoring pilot-type projects to working with municipal leaders on more large scale, paid engagements, according to Mike Zeto, general manager, AT&T Smart...

IoT connectivity platform provider Actility has released a slimmed-down version of its ThingPark solution for enterprise customers. ThingPark is the most widely deployed LoRa platform among operators of public LoRA networks. Actility announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona it had signed its fiftieth...

The city of Bristol, in southwest England, has been named the smartest of smart cities by the GSMA at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 in Barcelona. The mobile trade organisation noted its “focused, collaborative, and future-thinking approach”, as well as its robust communications infrastructure, well-established...

European LoRaWAN roaming will be completed by the end of the year, said the LoRa Alliance at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. European network operators Orange and KPN, in France and the Netherlands respectively, completed the first field tests of roaming between national LoRaWAN...

Glenn Lurie, the former president of AT&T Mobility, reckons smart cities are the single most promising new market for network operators. Lurie, now chief executive at US-based software provider Synchronoss Technologies, told Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona that network operators should reverse the decline in...

Ericsson and China Mobile have signed a strategic framework agreement at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona to collaborate on new enterprise and industrial IoT (IIoT) systems and services. The pair said they will build an ‘Industry IoT Cooperation Center’, as a crossover between China...

Telenor and Cisco are to establish a “joint lab environment” to develop smart cities solutions for civic authorities and services providers in Telenor’s home market, Norway. Cisco said the project will build upon Telenor’s existing connectivity infrastructure, including its Wi-Fi, WAN and mobile networks in...

AT&T is looking to integrate Cisco’s Kinetic for Cities platform into a number of its own city-focused solutions, notably its Smart Cities Operations Center (SCOC) proposition, which collects data from multiple departments and services in a centralized dashboard. Cisco’s Kinetic for Cities is a...

Deutsche Telekom has invited smart cities to offer its new white-label contactless payment application, City Pass, as a way for residents to pay for municipal services. The Germany based network operator unveiled the open platform concept at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Based on blockchain...

While many aspects of the smart city vision seem distant and over-hyped, solutions for smart energy and water management are not only technologically ready to go today, but offer attractive business cases to the generally risk averse utility sector. Trevor Hill, CEO of water management...