Everything seems to be getting smarter these days, and this has allowed many of the things we use every day to become more efficient. As everyone awaits the full promise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the tens of billions of devices it will connect, many cities around the world are in the process of making the necessary changes to take advantage of this technology. One of the latest cities to do so is Tampere, Finland. In collaboration with Nokia (News - Alert), the Smart Tampere initiative will make the city a case study for connected services, including smart lighting, smart energy, e-health, data management, smart mobility and smart user experience at large venues.
This is the second venture for Nokia to make a city smarter. The first one was as part of the Bristol Is Open (BIO) initiative in the UK, which brought together industries, both public and private, including technology, media, telecommunications, universities, local communities, and local and national government, to move forward the implementation and deployment of connected technologies.
This time around, Nokia is doing it in Finland, where the company got its start. Just like Bristol, Tampere is also bringing together agencies and local companies, NGOs and citizens to create a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable city by using existing and new technologies.
“The people of Tampere are making a substantial commitment to putting our city at the forefront of smart city development. Working with Nokia is a natural fit, as a company that has played such an important role in the development of the modern economy here in Tampere and in the country at large,” said Tero Blomqvist, Smart Tampere Program Director.
The Smart Tampere initiative will create a living lab to improve the lives of residents while making the city more attractive to businesses and visitors by exploring technological solutions where they can also be tested and deployed. Of course, this will not be cheap, and the city has made a concerted effort to procure 6-10 billion Euro or 6.5-10.87 billion dollars from public and private investments to develop Tampere into a smarter city by 2030.
Nokia will provide technologies that will be key to the connectivity of all this infrastructure in the development of the smart city, including 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT).
“Working together to explore the potential of digital technologies to make cities smarter is good for both Nokia and Tampere. The learnings we are able to glean from this collaboration will benefit Tampere's citizens, companies and visitors, and can also be carried forward into similar collaborations with other cities around the world,” said Tommi Uitto, Finland country head, Nokia.
Nokia's Smart City solutions provide shared, secure and scalable platforms by leveraging existing resources and data to help governments, communications service providers and large enterprises deliver on the potential of smart cities. The company works with an open partner ecosystem across a wide range of industries, including technology vendors, application developers, service providers, system integrators, utility companies, research institutions and others to explore the possibilities and implementations of new systems, applications, content, devices and services.
Edited by Alicia Young