AT&T has well and truly boosted the smart city sector, adding multiple capabilities to its platform to better the services cities get.
The network company has extended its relationship with Cisco, to help cities gain a near real-time view of current activity happening in a city. The additions to the platform include increased capabilities with Cisco, as well as new smart city alliance members and launching new infrastructure projects across Portland.
AT&T’s Smart Cities Operations Centre (SCOC) collects and analyses data from multiple departments and points across the city into a customised dashboard. In doing so, it heavily benefits the cities by allowing city leaders to make faster and more informed decisions.
Using the platform together, the pair is exploring different ways to integrate the Cisco Kinetic for Cities Platform into specific AT&T Smart Cities solutions. Additionally, this will enable them to strategically roll out resources to make the biggest impact and cut down costs and response times.
“Cities today are looking to unlock the value of the data being generated by connected machines, things and spaces,” said Anil Menon, global president, Smart+Connected Communities, at Cisco. “Cisco Kinetic for Cities is purpose-built to harness the power of all that data to drive smart city initiatives forward. Together with AT&T we want to help bridge the disparities between connected devices, people, and processes to simplify operations, enable new revenue sources, and allow leaders to be more responsive to citizen needs.”
The open architecture of the platform allows cities to add more solutions much more easily than they have been able to before, addressing a vast range of city needs. The platform takes citywide data and enables it to be used in previous devices, apps and services.
“When a city’s data is harnessed, analyzed and acted upon—securely in near real-time—it opens up a world of opportunities,” said Mike Zeto, general manager, AT&T Smart Cities. “With our strategic alliance members, we’re delivering solutions that will give city leaders meaningful insights into the communities they serve. This can mean improved quality of life for citizens.”
– Smart City Projects to watch out for this year
– Cisco previously invested $1bn into Smart Cities
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Other initiative AT&T is launching in Portland includes AT&T Digital Infrastructure, with Current, to transform lighting infrastructure into sensor-enabled data networks. This will help the city address issues such as traffic flow and parking, as Intel IoT technologies power each sensor’s computer vision analytics. A total of 200 Digital Infrastructure sensors will be rolled out.
The city will also roll out AT&T Structure Monitoring, which will work alongside IBM IoT Cloud, and IBM Services. Devices with LTE-enabled sensors will be deployed to different infrastrucutes across Portland, to measures things such as temperature, cracks and tilts to the structure.
“As we work to make Portland an even smarter and more connected city we’re excited to launch this new collaboration with AT&T,” said Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler. “This is significant in helping us build our city’s infrastructure and create new opportunities for local residents. With the integration of AT&T’s Smart City solutions, we will be better positioned to improve traffic and increase public safety.”
