TRENDING
cameras, smart lighting or traffic sensors,
but for 2019 they will start to take the
longer view and think about building a
basic infrastructure to support all Smart
City applications.
It only makes sense; otherwise, the city
is digging up the same streets every year
or so to add infrastructure for each new
application. For example, one city installed
basic security cameras on light poles but did
so without installing fibre connectivity that
would enable adding small cells to those
poles or implementing facial recognition
applications for the cameras. Now, the city
must upgrade its light pole connectivity
network – a painful and costly process.
To avoid having to upgrade networks in
the future, city planners are now educating
themselves about future possibilities,
consulting with IoT vendors and network
connectivity vendors, and working to develop
a plan for the long term.
Under the Dubai Plan 2021, the government
will offer ubiquitous Internet connectivity
through high-speed fibre optic and high
bandwidth Wi-Fi networks, with 5,000 newly
deployed Wi-Fi hotspots providing free
“
ACCORDING TO A
RECENT REPORT
BY KPMG, THE
AMOUNT SPENT
ON SMART CITIES
TECHNOLOGY IS
SET TO DOUBLE IN
THE COMING FOUR
YEARS WITHIN
THE MIDDLE EAST
AND AFRICA
(MEA) REGION.
24
INTELLIGENTCIO
In some cases, cities in North America are funding or partnering with local power companies to
build out the ‘Middle Mile’ of the fibre network (Figure 1)
Internet connection to 50 billion devices
expected to be connected all over the city.
Overall, data connectivity is becoming the
Fourth Utility in cities – it’s a must-have to
do business, and cities are recognising this.
Connectivity in homes and businesses is a
competitive advantage for cities, and they
are rushing to implement it.
Creative financing
Like water, gas and electricity, cities don’t
always deliver the service, but they enable
construction of the basic infrastructure that
delivers the service.
We’re starting to see more projects that
combine government funding with public/
private partnerships.
In Europe and elsewhere around the world,
many national governments are mandating
and providing funding for large fibre build-
outs. In North America, service providers,
developers and local utilities are deploying
parts of the civic connectivity infrastructure
while the city facilitates permitting and
planning for construction.
Electric utilities are in a unique position to
deploy fibre infrastructure because they
already own rights-of-way and have existing
overhead poles or underground conduits that
can accommodate new fibre, so they can
deploy fibre more quickly and at a lower cost.
In some cases, cities in North America are
funding or partnering with local power
companies to build out the ‘Middle Mile’ of
the fibre network (Figure 1) – the part from
central offices or other distribution hubs to
neighbourhoods or business parks.
Middle-Mile networks are the most common
municipal model due to less risk, the
decreased cost of deployment and the
ability to lease excess conduit/fibre to private
providers. Cities and municipal organisations
building Middle-Mile networks include
Centennial, Colorado, and Howard County,
Maryland, to name just a few.
In many other cases, cities are also building
the ‘Last Mile’ that connects customers,
often in partnership with local municipal
electric companies. Ammon, Idaho; Hudson
Oaks, Texas; and Fairlawn, Ohio; and are
deploying last mile connectivity on their own,
while Chattanooga, Tennessee; Lafayette,
Louisiana; and Longmont, Colorado, are
partnering with local electric utilities to reach
end customers.
We see similar trends internationally
in Stockholm (Stokab), Netherlands
(Reggefibre, Citynet Amsterdam) and
Singapore (OpenNet) to just name a few.
Carriers are also building their own Last-
Mile networks, and 5G access will play an
increasing role in delivering this connectivity,
either through the densification of mobile
networks or deployment of new fixed access
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