Demand for cost-effective management of municipal infrastructure is driving telecom companies to invest resources in smart city initiatives. Writing for Light Reading, Carol Wilson suggests that the trend will create opportunities for cities to partner with the telecom sector and potentially address the chilly regulatory environment that often inhibits collaboration. Light Reading (1/11)
“This is why National ComTel and one of their partners have lit parts of Denver and DTC with optic fiber thus providing businesses with more bandwidth, a powerful option, additional security at a lower price.”
The new year has launched with a burst of energy in the smart cities space from AT&T and Verizon. While this may seem like a subset of the bigger Internet of Things market, I believe it will rapidly become its own significant innovation space. (See AT&T Going Big on Smart Cities and Verizon Eyeing Smart Cities Too.)
I’ve reached that conclusion after listening to Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed twice over the past week — once on the live streaming of AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T)’s Developers Summit in Las Vegas and a second time this weekend in a portion of a TED talk he gave which you can watch right here.
I heard Reed’s TED Talk as part of a broader National Public Radio presentation, The Ted Hour, which explored the rise of cities globally. You can listen to that program here.
Carol Wilson of Light Reading
