CommScope is latest vendor to join council as a lead partner
The market for smart city solutions will soon be worth more than $1 trillion, according to Frost & Sullivan, and the wireless industry will be ready. Companies from almost every part of the wireless ecosystem have already joined the Smart Cities Council, a network of companies advised by universities, laboratories and standards bodies.
CommScope is the latest company to announce it has joined the organization as a lead partner. The company foresees exploding urban demand for fiber, cables and antennas.
“Cities will need to have infrastructure in place to support ‘supercity’ growth and densification,” said CommScope CTO Morgan Kurk. “The United Nations estimates that 70% of the world population will be urban by 2050.”
Other lead partners of the Smart Cities Council include AT&T, Qualcomm, Cisco, Ruckus, IBM, ZTE, UL, Deloitte, Dow Building and Construction, EY, Sensus, Oracle, S&C Electric Co., CH2M, Allied Telesis, Daimler, SAS Institute, Schneider Electric, Ooredoo, Microsoft, GE, Hitachi and Itron.
As part of the federal government’s smart cities initiative, the council has awarded smart city challenge grants to Austin, Texas; Indianapolis; Miami and Orlando, Florida; and Philadelphia. Each receive the following services from contributing companies:
Ameresco will consult with each of the five cities on optimizing smart street lighting as part of an overall smart city strategy.
AT&T will donate up to 25 IoT Starter Kits to each of the selected cities.
CH2M and Qualcomm will partner to host a one-day follow-on workshop for each city to develop a work plan for development and deployment of a Smart Cities Council ecosystem.
Computing Technology Industry Association will provide each winning city with a one-year “premier” membership and online access to its research and materials.
Dow Building & Construction will provide consultation on optimizing building design as a part of a smart city ecosystem.
IDC’s Government Insights Smart Cities Strategies research advisory service will provide each city a smart city maturity benchmark.
Sensus will provide each winning city a hosted smart city communication network free of charge for one year.
Telit will provide each city free access to the Telit IoT platform, which provides comprehensive functions for connecting devices, managing devices and integrating the data.
TM Forum will provide its expertise and its Smart City Maturity and Benchmark model free of charge to help the cities quickly assess their strengths and weaknesses and to set clear goals for transformation.
Transdev will provide each selected city with up to three days of free consultation and technical assistance to look at ways of providing new and more efficient mobility options.
