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Message from MWC 2017: Decade Old Smart Cities Approaches Are Ripe for Disruption |
NEWS |
At Mobile Word Congress (MWC) 2017, held in Barcelona, smart cities were a major topic of discussion. With a dedicated seminar, multiple presentations, and panel sessions, as well as vendors across the show floor highlighting the smart cities segment, this was a major opportunity for mobile and IoT technology deployments. While smart cities has been a topic at MWC for many years, this year, new ideas and approaches for accelerating deployments and achieving faster return on investment (ROI) were discussed and proposed for the first time.
New smart cities concepts and visions seem to be taking root more widely, such as increased awareness regarding holistic approaches and the (re)use of platforms for as many applications as possible. Smart streetlights and smart bin technology can double as public Wi-Fi hotspots and small cells, and LED streetlights can also be used for emergency signaling and security communication through flashing, warning drivers about nearby emergency vehicles (GigaTera). Moreover, the need for replication of harmonized approaches across cities was also highlighted. All this is clearly aimed at breaking through the fragmentation barrier that holds back investments through a lack of a clear return on investment perspective.
Sharing Economy, Mobile Sensors, and Holistic Approaches |
IMPACT |
While deploying dedicated smart cities infrastructure offers the widest scope for offering a wide range of reliable services, CAPEX investments are almost always prohibitive. Smarter approaches leveraging existing but underutilized assets and reusing technologies for multiple applications and use cases are needed to accelerate deployments at limited cost. Three main paradigms are instrumental in achieving this outcome:
Funding, Funding, Funding! |
COMMENTARY |
Interestingly, the new deployment strategies highlighted above eases the formidable smart cities funding challenge. Smart city financing sources recently became more accessible, for example, through interest of venture capital (VC) companies in the growing GovTech sector in the U.S. or smart city budgets made available by governments, both national (China) and international (EU). Nevertheless, funding remains largely limited, forcing smart city projects to embrace smart financing, maximizing ROI by investing in the incremental approaches mentioned above, hereby demonstrating short ROI periods, which is critical to raise further rounds of financing. Some elements of smart financing can include suppliers offering their solutions as recurring costs only (CAPEX/OPEX conversion) and the adoption of a collaborative economy made possible through technologies like blockchain.
When all is said and done, smart cities are as much about smart financing as they are about smart technology. The inherent public nature of smart city projects—whether they are embedded in public-private partnerships or not—mandates the wisest use of resources and the highest standards of accountability.