Nokia is doing its level best to trump its rivals and prove just how smart it is with the release of its apparently US inspired 'Smart City Playbook'.

Tim Skinner

November 8, 2016

2 Min Read
Nokia trumps rivals with Smart City Playbook

Nokia is doing its level best to trump its rivals and prove just how smart it is with the release of its apparently US inspired ‘Smart City Playbook’.

The Finnish vendor is aggressively pursuing status as the leader of all things smart after commissioning research into how the 22 smartest cities around the world became so damn intelligent. It reckons there are three main routes most commonly used to become smart:

  • Anchor – where a city develops a single application designed to resolve a pressing issue using IoT. This could be, for instance, traffic congestion. Then, after establishing an anchor (get it?) applications can be developed over the top of the existing infrastructure as and when.

  • Platform – where the underlying infrastructure is built deliberately with the aim of having multiple, varying applications can be deployed over the top.

  • Beta Cities – where multiple applications are piloted to see how they perform before any decisions regarding deployments are made.

By doing this digging with Machina Research, Nokia concluded there are a few key practices the most successful. In general, the most advanced cities are those which:

  • develop common and clear rules over the use of data by governments and third parties;

  • create unilateral cooperation between IoT and ICT functions both inside and outside of government;

  • engage residents of the city to find out their needs and determine which initiatives are working;

  • deploying a scalable and intelligent infrastructure which can expand as required by future applications and use cases;

Most of this research hadn’t been even remotely self-serving for Nokia until we got to one last key practice that governments need to adopt. So what could that possibly be?

  • “Cities that select technology partners that can provide the innovation capacity, ability to invest and real-world experience, along with technology platforms that are open to avoid vendor lock-in, will be at an advantage.”

There it is.

The playbook doesn’t specify which approach is right or wrong, or which is better than others. It looks like there are no wrong answers to making cities smart, just as long as they are getting smarter… and buying Nokia gear while they’re at it.

(Sorry for the flagrant SEO bait, the editor gave us minions a challenge to get Trump into the headline)

About the Author(s)

Tim Skinner

Tim is the features editor at Telecoms.com, focusing on the latest activity within the telecoms and technology industries – delivering dry and irreverent yet informative news and analysis features.

Tim is also host of weekly podcast A Week In Wireless, where the editorial team from Telecoms.com and their industry mates get together every now and then and have a giggle about what’s going on in the industry.

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