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DISRUPTER SERIES: SMART COMMUNITIES 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON DIGITAL COMMERCE AND 

CONSUMER PROTECTION 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND 

COMMERCE 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

MARCH 16, 2017 

Serial No. 115–14 

( 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

energycommerce.house.gov 

COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE 

GREG WALDEN, Oregon 

Chairman 

JOE BARTON, Texas 

Vice Chairman 

FRED UPTON, Michigan 

JOHN SHIMKUS, Illinois 

TIM MURPHY, Pennsylvania 

MICHAEL C. BURGESS, Texas 

MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee 

STEVE SCALISE, Louisiana 

ROBERT E. LATTA, Ohio 

CATHY MCMORRIS RODGERS, Washington 

GREGG HARPER, Mississippi 

LEONARD LANCE, New Jersey 

BRETT GUTHRIE, Kentucky 

PETE OLSON, Texas 

DAVID B. MCKINLEY, West Virginia 

ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois 

H. MORGAN GRIFFITH, Virginia 

GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida 

BILL JOHNSON, Ohio 

BILLY LONG, Missouri 

LARRY BUCSHON, Indiana 

BILL FLORES, Texas 

SUSAN W. BROOKS, Indiana 

MARKWAYNE MULLIN, Oklahoma 

RICHARD HUDSON, North Carolina 

CHRIS COLLINS, New York 

KEVIN CRAMER, North Dakota 

TIM WALBERG, Michigan 

MIMI WALTERS, California 

RYAN A. COSTELLO, Pennsylvania 

EARL L. ‘‘BUDDY’’ CARTER, Georgia 

FRANK PALLONE, JR., New Jersey 

Ranking Member 

BOBBY L. RUSH, Illinois 

ANNA G. ESHOO, California 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

GENE GREEN, Texas 

DIANA DEGETTE, Colorado 

MICHAEL F. DOYLE, Pennsylvania 

JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois 

G.K. BUTTERFIELD, North Carolina 

DORIS O. MATSUI, California 

KATHY CASTOR, Florida 

JOHN P. SARBANES, Maryland 

JERRY MCNERNEY, California 

PETER WELCH, Vermont 

BEN RAY LUJA ́ N, New Mexico 

PAUL TONKO, New York 

YVETTE D. CLARKE, New York 

DAVID LOEBSACK, Iowa 

KURT SCHRADER, Oregon 

JOSEPH P. KENNEDY, III, Massachusetts 

TONY CA ́ RDENAS, California 

RAUL RUIZ, California 

SCOTT H. PETERS, California 

DEBBIE DINGELL, Michigan 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON DIGITAL COMMERCE AND CONSUMER PROTECTION

ROBERT E. LATTA, Ohio 

Chairman 

GREGG HARPER, Mississippi 

Vice Chairman 

FRED UPTON, Michigan 

MICHAEL C. BURGESS, Texas 

LEONARD LANCE, New Jersey 

BRETT GUTHRIE, Kentucky 

DAVID B. MCKINLEY, West Virgina 

ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois 

GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida 

LARRY BUCSHON, Indiana 

MARKWAYNE MULLIN, Oklahoma 

MIMI WALTERS, California 

RYAN A. COSTELLO, Pennsylvania 

GREG WALDEN, Oregon (ex officio) 

JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois 

Ranking Member 

BEN RAY LUJA ́ N, New Mexico 

YVETTE D. CLARKE, New York 

TONY CA ́ RDENAS, California 

DEBBIE DINGELL, Michigan 

DORIS O. MATSUI, California 

PETER WELCH, Vermont 

JOSEPH P. KENNEDY, III, Massachusetts 

GENE GREEN, Texas 

FRANK PALLONE, JR., New Jersey (ex 

officio) 

(II) 

(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Page 

Hon. Robert E. Latta, a Representative in Congress from the State of Ohio, 

opening statement ................................................................................................ 1 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 2 

Hon. Gregg Harper, a Representative in Congress from the State of Mississippi, opening statement ................................................................................. 3 

Hon. Ben Ray Luja ́n, a Representative in Congress from the State of New 

Mexico, opening statement .................................................................................. 4 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 5 

Hon. Greg Walden, a Representative in Congress from the State of Oregon, 

opening statement ................................................................................................ 6 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 7 

Hon. Peter Welch, a Representative in Congress from the State of Vermont, 

opening statement ................................................................................................ 7 

WITNESSES

Jennifer Gallagher, Director of Public Service, City of Columbus, Ohio ............ 9 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 11 

Kyle Chisek, Director of Bureau Relations, Office of Mayor Ted Wheeler, 

City of Portland, Oregon ...................................................................................... 17 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 18 

Brenna Berman, Commissioner and Chief Information Officer, Chicago Department of Innovation and Technology 1 .......................................................... 26 

Kurt Gruendling, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, 

Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom ........................................................ 28 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 30 

Jennifer Clark, Director, Center for Urban Innovation, and Associate Professor of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology ................................... 40 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 42 

Alexander Pazuchanics, Policy Coordinator, Office of the Mayor, City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ............................................................................................ 56 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 58 

SUBMITTED MATERIAL

Statement of CA Technologies by David J. Bressler, Vice President, API 

Management Solutions, March 16, 2017, submitted by Mr. Harper ............... 81 

Letter of March 16, 2017, from Honda North America, Inc., to Mr. Latta 

and Ms. Schakowsky, submitted by Mr. Harper ............................................... 85 

Statement of Panasonic, ‘‘A Portfolio Microgrid in Denver, Colorado,’’ submitted by Mr. Harper .......................................................................................... 87 

Statement of ITS America, March 16, 2017, submitted by Mr. Harper .............. 89 

Letter of March 15, 2017, from Elizabeth Hyman, Executive Vice President, 

CompTIA, and Skip Newberry, Chairman, Technology Councils of North 

America, and CEO, Technology Association of Oregon, to Mr. Latta and 

Ms. Schakowsky, submitted by Mr. Harper ....................................................... 92 

Statement of March 16, 2017, by ITI, CompTIA, Smart Cities Council, and 

TIA, submitted by Mr. Harper ............................................................................ 95 

1Ms. Berman did not submit a written statement for the record. 

Page

IV 

Report by Deloitte, ‘‘Wireless Connectivity Fuels Industry Growth and Innovation in Energy, Health, Public Safety, and Transportation,’’ January 

2017, submitted by Mr. Harper .......................................................................... 99 

Letter of March 16, 2017, from Marc Rotenberg, President, Electronic Privacy 

Information Center, et al., to Mr. Latta and Ms. Schakowsky, submitted 

by Mr. Harper ....................................................................................................... 118 

(1) 

DISRUPTER SERIES: SMART COMMUNITIES 

THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2017 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON DIGITAL COMMERCE AND CONSUMER

PROTECTION, COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE, 

Washington, DC. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:17 a.m., in room 

2123 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Robert E. Latta (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. 

Members present: Representatives Latta, Harper, Upton, Lance, 

Bilirakis, Bucshon, Mullin, Walters, Costello, Walden (ex officio), 

Luja ́n, Clarke, Dingell, Matsui, Welch, Kennedy, Green, and Doyle. 

Staff present: Elena Brennan, Legislative Clerk, Oversight and 

Investigations; Jordan Davis, Director of Policy and External Affairs; Blair Ellis, Press Secretary/Digital Coordinator; Melissa 

Froelich, Counsel, Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection; 

Giulia Giannangeli, Legislative Clerk, Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection; Bijan Koohmaraie, Counsel, Digital Commerce 

and Consumer Protection; Katie McKeough, Press Assistant; Alex 

Miller, Video Production Aide and Press Assistant; Paul Nagle, 

Chief Counsel, Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection; Olivia 

Trusty, Professional Staff Member, Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection; Michelle Ash, Minority Chief Counsel, Digital 

Commerce and Consumer Protection; Elisa Goldman, Minority 

Counsel; and Caroline Paris-Behr, Minority Policy Analyst. 

Mr. LATTA. Well, good morning. I would like to call the Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection to order, 

and the Chair now recognizes himself for 5 minutes for an opening 

statement. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT E. LATTA, A 

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF OHIO 

Good morning, and welcome to our second Disrupter Series hearing this week, and I want to thank our panels for being here to testify today. And we certainly appreciate your flexibility as things 

moved around due to our full committee markup last week, so we 

really appreciate that. The topic for today’s hearing is smart communities. One of the hallmarks of the Disrupter Series is looking 

at emerging technologies and platforms to understand how technology is bringing new benefits to the consumer while disrupting 

traditional markets and regulatory models. 

Today we have the opportunity to look at these issues from a 

slightly different perspective and hear from the experts on the 

2 

ground evaluating new technologies in their communities. In some 

ways, no marketplace is more important than the local government 

where every service is paid for with hard-earned tax dollars using 

new technologies at the local level in our hometowns so they may 

efficiently deliver better services to their constituents. 

Many of us sitting on the dais have experience in local government. While many of the challenges and peculiarities are similar 

if not the same among who we serve, the speed of technology can 

also be measured by how many of these technologies were available 

to us years back. Leveraging new technology to provide, measure, 

and improve service to constituents in our communities is the ultimate goal. There are opportunities to improve education, traffic, 

and health. We can drastically increase mobility and access to jobs. 

From safety to sanitation to the environment, communities that 

wisely invest in technologies can make a real difference in Americans’ lives. 

While funding is an issue we all face, the first step is identifying 

the local issues that can truly be transformed by connected and 

other technologies. I am looking forward to hearing from our witnesses on the panel about their ideas and experiences, solving the 

most pressing local issues with the new technology. 

I would also like to extend a warm welcome to Jennifer Gallagher from Columbus, Ohio, on the panel this morning. As the winner of the Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge, 

Columbus has quite a bit of work ahead of them to implement on 

their goal of reducing infant mortality. If there is one thing I am 

sure about is the ingenuity and grit of my fellow Ohioans to deliver 

to our constituents. 

I would like to thank you all again for adjusting your plans to 

be here with us this morning, and I look forward to your testimony. 

[The statement of Mr. Latta follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT E. LATTA

Good morning and welcome to our second Disrupter Series hearing in two days. 

Thank you to our panelists for being here to testify. We sincerely appreciate your 

flexibility as things moved around due to our full committee markup last week. The 

topic for today’s hearing is Smart Communities. One of the hallmarks of the Disrupter Series is looking at emerging technologies and platforms to understand how 

technology is bringing new benefits to the consumer while disrupting traditional 

markets and regulatory models. 

Today we have the opportunity to look at these issues from a slightly different 

perspective and hear from the folks on the ground evaluating new technologies in 

their communities. In some ways no marketplace is more important than the local 

government, where every service is paid for with hard earned tax dollars. Using new 

technologies at the local level, in our hometowns, may be able to deliver better services more efficiently. 

Many of us sitting on the dais have experience in local government. While many 

of the challenges and political realities are similar, if not the same, to when we 

served, the speed of technology can also be measured by how many of these technologies were available to use years ago. 

Leveraging new technology to provide, measure, and improve service to constituents in our communities is the ultimate goal. There are opportunities to improve 

education, traffic and health. We can drastically increase mobility and access to 

jobs. From safety to sanitation to the environment, communities that wisely invest 

in technologies can make a real difference in American’s lives. 

While funding is an issue we all face, the first step is identifying the local issues 

that could truly be transformed by connected and other technologies. I am looking 

forward to hearing from the witnesses on the panel about their ideas and experiences solving the most pressing local issues with new technology. 

3 

I would like to extend a warm welcome to Jennifer Gallagher from Columbus, 

Ohio on the panel this morning. As the winner of the Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge, the city has quite a bit of work ahead of them to implement and deliver on their goal of reducing infant mortality. If there is one thing 

I am sure about, it is the ingenuity and grit of my fellow Ohioans to deliver for our 

constituents. 

I would like to thank you all again, for adjusting your plans to be here with us 

this morning and I look forward to your testimony. 

Mr. LATTA. And I have some time left on the clock, are there any 

other members? The Chair recognizes the gentleman, the vice chair 

from Mississippi. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. GREGG HARPER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI 

Mr. HARPER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for calling this hearing today on Smart Communities, the second hearing 

this week in our Disrupter Series which provides us the opportunity to examine and better understand how these advancements 

will affect our daily lives in a rapidly evolving world of 

interconnectivity. 

It is no secret that infrastructure management is a growing problem in the United States. Improving infrastructure management 

and maximizing investment in roads and bridges and other infrastructures not only improve our quality of life, it also safeguards 

the flow of commerce, strengthens our economy, and ensures we 

are competitive both locally and globally. 

I am proud to say that a Mississippi company, Camgian Microsystems, headquartered in my district in Starkville, Mississippi, at 

the home of Mississippi State University, is driving innovations 

and pioneering efforts to address the problem and help to find cutting edge solutions. Camgian’s award-winning product, Egburt, released in October 2014, is a complete internet of things cloud service comprising software, hardware, and communications. 

Egburt utilizes proprietary sensing and information processing 

technology to deliver real time, actionable intelligence designed to 

be used by commercial and government customers for a broad 

range of remote monitoring applications ranging from retail operations to infrastructure for both bridges, dams, and other items. By 

leveraging the experience and success of Egburt’s software platform, Camgian engineers, in conjunction with U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers, developed the intelligent decision support, or IDS, system to improve the performance and reliability of critical infrastructure. 

In May of last year, Camgian engineers completed the installation of the IDS system on the Markland dam bridge and locks system which is 1,395 feet long and a key part of the Ohio River navigation system. It has been successfully operating since that time. 

As a result of this contract, we could see groundbreaking development in infrastructure, health, and management that could serve 

as the cornerstone for the design and build of next generation infrastructure management systems. 

I am looking forward to hearing from each one of you today, and 

I appreciate the chairman calling this hearing, and I yield back. 

4 

Mr. LATTA. Thank you very much. The gentleman yields back. 

The Chair now recognizes the acting ranking member of the subcommittee, the gentleman from New Mexico, for 5 minutes. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BEN RAY LUJA ́ N, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO 

Mr. LUJA ́ N. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. It is a pleasure 

to sit next to you today for the hearing in the Digital Commerce 

and Consumer Protection Subcommittee on Smart Communities. I 

want to thank the ranking members for working together to convene this hearing today, the chairman and the majority, and I 

thank all the witnesses for their attendance today as well. 

Let me begin by noting my appreciation for the title of today’s 

hearing, Smart Communities, because in a State like my home of 

New Mexico it really is about building smart communities. And as 

I think today’s hearing will show, there are exciting innovations 

happening everywhere from the assembled cities here in Columbus, 

Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Portland, including New Mexico where we 

have two national labs and Intel. 

Take what is happening in Santa Fe. In New Mexico, water is 

a precious resource which is why Santa Fe is deploying cellular 

smart meters to track consumption and to identify leaks and other 

problems. These types of advancements improve quality of life, 

save money, and help policymakers make better decisions. However, there is no reason that these advancements should be reserved for just cities and Silicon Valley. We must act to prevent the 

development of a new digital divide by helping communities of all 

sizes adopt smart infrastructure and solutions. 

To guarantee that smaller and rural communities aren’t left behind, I am working with Senators Maria Cantwell and Congresswoman Suzan DelBene to develop legislation to promote the use of 

smart technologies while protecting privacy and guarding against 

cyber attacks. 

Our draft legislation seeks to enhance Federal coordination of 

smart community efforts and provide communities with a resource 

guide and technical assistance, leverage the expertise of our national laboratories including Los Alamos and Sandia to help communities adopt smarter infrastructure and real solutions, launch 

regional demonstration efforts to test and advance smart community technologies and systems, and promote the development of a 

technology-skilled workforce to support the deployment and development of smart communities. We believe this effort will make 

communities across the country more liveable and sustainable, and 

there is no reason this effort shouldn’t be a bipartisan effort. 

I believe that this committee and the Congress has the responsibility to work together to ensure that every corner of America benefits from the infrastructure of tomorrow, which is why critically it 

isn’t enough that we work together to advance the ideas under discussion today, we have to work together to deploy broadband infrastructure that reaches all Americans. I often joked with the previous chairman of the FCC that if we are having a conversation of 

having broadband at 30,000 feet from Los Angeles to New York, 

5 

surely we can be talking about having broadband in all parts of 

America on the ground. 

In the weeks ahead I look forward to working with my colleagues. I want to thank Mr. Latta again for holding this important 

hearing, and with that I yield to Mr. Doyle of Pennsylvania. 

[The statement of Mr. Luja ́n follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. BEN RAY LUJA ́ N

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is a pleasure to sit next to you for today’s Digital 

Commerce and Consumer Protection subcommittee hearing on Smart Communities. 

I thank you and the Ranking Members for working together to convene this hearing today and I thank all the witnesses for their attendance. 

Let me begin by noting my appreciation for the title of today’s hearing: ‘‘Smart 

Communities.’’ Because in a State like my home of New Mexico, it really is about 

building smart communities and as I think today’s hearing will show—there are exciting innovations happening everywhere—from the assembled cities here: Columbus, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Portland—to New Mexico, where we have with two 

national labs and Intel. 

Take what’s happening in Santa Fe. In New Mexico, water is a precious resource, 

which is why Santa Fe is deploying cellular smart meters to track consumption and 

to identify leaks and other problems. 

These types of advancements improve quality of life, save money, and help policymakers make better decisions. However, there is no reason that these advancements 

should be reserved just for cities and Silicon Valley. We must act to prevent the development of a new digital divide by helping communities of all sizes adopt smart 

infrastructure solutions 

To guarantee that smaller and rural communities aren’t left behind, I am working 

with Senator Maria Cantwell and Congresswoman Suzan DelBene to develop legislation to promote the use of smart technologies while protecting privacy and guarding against cyber-attacks. 

Our draft legislation seeks to: 

• Enhance Federal coordination of smart community efforts and provide communities with a resource guide and technical assistance. • Leverage the expertise of our National Laboratories, including Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia in New Mexico, to help communities adopt smart infrastructure solutions. • Launch regional demonstration efforts to test and advance smart community 

technologies and systems. • Promote the development of a technology skilled workforce to support the development of smart communities. 

We believe that this effort will make communities across the country more livable 

and sustainable. And there is no reason this effort shouldn’t be a bipartisan effort. 

I believe that this committee and this Congress has a responsibility to work together to ensure that every corner of America benefits from the infrastructure of 

tomorrow. 

Which is why, critically, it isn’t enough that we work together to advance the 

ideas under discussion today. We have to work together to deploy broadband infrastructure so that it reaches all Americans. 

Mr. DOYLE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank you for 

hosting this important hearing today on Smart Communities and 

for featuring my hometown and district, Pittsburgh, and I want to 

welcome Alex Pazuchanics—we call him Paz, for short—for being 

here today. 

You know, Pittsburgh has changed a lot. You don’t have to wipe 

soot off your car in the morning anymore and the sky isn’t full of 

dust and ash anymore. We have become one of the most liveable 

and innovative cities in the country. Pittsburgh has deployed a 

range of technologies and on its smart cities platform and as Alex 

will point out in his testimony this isn’t just sensors and connected 

infrastructure, it is cloud computing and data analytics on the back 

end too, taking that data and using it to improve traffic patterns, 

6 

reduce vehicle idle time, improve air quality, and make our city 

more liveable. 

Now at the risk of sounding biased, I think Pittsburgh is in 

many ways a perfect test bed for the city of the future. And as 

these technologies develop what the city is doing is creating a modular infrastructure that will allow for the rapid deployment of new 

technologies and capabilities. I know last year was the first round 

of the Smart City Challenge at the Federal level, but we have been 

doing this stuff in Pittsburgh for a long time and we are going to 

continue to do it in Pittsburgh, but we need to continue Federal 

support. And I want to thank all my colleagues here today for demonstrating the importance of this work at the Federal level and I 

want to thank all the panelists for your testimony today. And Mr. 

Luja ́n, thank you for yielding me this time and I will yield back. 

Mr. LUJA ́ N. I yield back, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. LATTA. Thank you very much. The gentleman yields back 

and the Chair now recognizes the chairman of the full committee, 

the gentleman from Oregon, 5 minutes. Thank you. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. GREG WALDEN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF OREGON 

Mr. WALDEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to welcome 

our witnesses. We appreciate your testimony and how our local 

communities are leading in innovation and great ideas in every sector, because I believe they are laboratories for American innovation 

and new ideas. 

As we will hear today, many communities across our country 

have adopted technology to improve their citizens’ quality of life, 

but counties, cities, towns, and parishes all face the same question 

when they evaluate new technology and projects. Many communities are still working to understand how to adopt and when to 

adopt technology that will improve efficiency, increase accountability, accessibility, and streamline everyday tasks for their citizens. 

Several organizations, including the Department of Transportation, have worked to discover what projects local governments 

were interested in pursuing and hear from residents about the 

projects they think would be most advantageous in pursuing. In 

total, 78 cities have submitted applications for DOT’s Smart City 

Challenge, and today I look forward to hearing from some of the 

finalists about your proposals and I appreciate your testimony, particularly how you have engaged with people in your communities 

to gather ideas or encourage adoption of them. 

The innovation agenda for this subcommittee includes promoting 

many technologies that have natural applications for local governments, but we must acknowledge the challenges. These ideas may 

face difficulties with both funding and adoption. There are also important data sharing, cybersecurity, and privacy issues that need 

to be addressed when government entities are engaging with private companies to provide transportation, energy, or other community services, so my hope is we can explore many of these issues 

during today’s hearing and into the future. 

Today we have a chance to hear from several cities and other experts who are on the front lines of finding the value proposition for 

7 

deploying smart community technology, and despite my colleague’s 

comments about Pittsburgh which is a wonderful city, it ain’t got 

nothing on Portland. 

I would especially like to thank Mr. Chisek from my home State 

of Oregon and the from the City of Portland. He is here to talk 

about projects that Portland is working on, as the City of Portland 

has been a national leader on these issues for a long time. So I 

want to thank you for making the trek back here, and we appreciate all your innovation. 

It is really a fun part of this job, I think, for all of us is to hear 

what is going on on the ground and how we can help facilitate it 

and learn from it and take the innovation from our local laboratories, maybe even apply it to the Federal Government. So with 

that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time and I 

thank you for your leadership on these issues. 

[The statement of Mr. Walden follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. GREG WALDEN

Local communities are the laboratories of American ideas and innovation. As we 

will hear today, many communities across our country have adopted technology to 

improve their citizens’ quality of life. But counties, cities, towns, and parishes all 

face the same questions when they evaluate new technology and projects. Many 

communities are still working to understand how to adopt, and when to adopt, technology that will improve efficiency, increase accessibility, and streamline everyday 

tasks for their citizens. 

Several organizations, including the Department of Transportation, have worked 

to discover what projects local governments were interested in pursuing and hear 

from residents about the projects that they think would be most advantageous in 

pursuing. In total, seventy-eight cities submitted applications for DOT’s Smart City 

Challenge, and today I look forward to hearing from some of the finalists about their 

proposals. Particularly how they have engaged with folks in their communities to 

gather ideas or encourage adoption. 

The innovation agenda for this subcommittee includes promoting many technologies that have natural applications for local governments, but we must acknowledge the challenges. These ideas may face difficulties with both funding and adoption. There are also important data sharing, cybersecurity, and privacy issues that 

need to be addressed when government entities are engaging with private companies to provide transportation, energy, or other community services. My hope is that 

we can explore many of these issues during today’s hearing and into the future. 

Today, we have the chance to hear from several cities and other experts who are 

on the front lines of finding the value proposition for deploying smart community 

technology. I would especially like to thank Mr. Chisek from my home State of Oregon for being here to talk about the projects that Portland is working on, as the 

City of Portland has been a national leader on these issues. Thank you all for being 

here. 

Mr. LATTA. Well, thank you very much. The gentleman yields 

back. And at this time, the Chair would recognize the gentleman 

from Vermont, who is claiming the ranking member’s time. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. PETER WELCH, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF VERMONT 

Mr. WELCH. I thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, as you know, 

the challenges facing rural America are acute. There is a significant population shift into urban areas. Rural America has enormous challenges. You and I have started a rural caucus and it is 

because we believe that there has to be a solid future in rural 

America. That can’t happen unless we have solid internet. We have 

to have the same speed, we have to have the same access and the 

8 

same quality in rural America as in urban America and we can’t 

turn our back. 

And folks who are here today, including Kurt Gruendling—thank 

you for coming—from Waitsfield Telecom, are doing the hard practical work to make certain that rural America has the resources 

they need, the infrastructure they need in order to be viable. So I 

am delighted that we are having this hearing and that Mr. 

Gruendling from Waitsfield Telecom is here. 

You know, he in addition to being vice president of business developing and marketing, he does all kinds of things in the community. You understand that if you are in rural America you have a 

job and you have another job and then you have the community 

service and you have more community service, and that is what 

you do in addition to raising his twins who are 15 years old. But 

Waitsfield Telecom is three generations of ownership in the same 

family; it has been around for 113 years. They serve Mad River in 

the Champlain Valley areas and it is really crucial to our schools, 

to our businesses there; it is like 28,000 people. 

But how do you deploy and provide service in small rural areas 

that have mountainous regions and technical challenges? The big 

carriers don’t want to do it because they can’t make as much 

money as they want, but I also think they don’t do it because they 

aren’t as smart as the small carriers like Waitsfield Telecom that 

figure out practical solutions to real problems where they have an 

ongoing commitment to the people in that community. 

So this hearing is very important. Our work on the rural caucus 

and in this committee is incredibly important. Our chairman of the 

full committee has a pretty broad rural district, so my hope is that 

this committee more than any other committee in this Congress is 

going to stand up for rural America. Thank you. 

Mr. LATTA. Thank you very much. The gentleman yields back, 

and that concludes our member opening statements. The Chair 

would like to remind members that pursuant to committee rules, 

all members’ opening statements will be made part of the record. 

We want to thank all the witnesses again for being with us today 

and taking the time to testify before the subcommittee. Today’s 

witnesses will have the opportunity to give opening statements followed by a round of questions from the members. 

Our witness panel for today’s hearing will include Jennifer Gallagher, director of Public Service for the City of Columbus, Ohio; 

Kyle Chisek, director of Bureau Relations in the office of Mayor 

Ted Wheeler of the City of Portland, Oregon; Ms. Brenna Berman, 

commissioner and chief information officer at the Chicago Department of Innovation and Technology; Mr. Kurt Gruendling, vice 

president of Marketing and Business Development at Waitsfield 

and Champlain Valley Telecom; Dr. Jennifer Clark, director of Center for Urban Innovation and associate professor of public policy at 

Georgia Institute of Technology; and maybe I should just go with 

Paz too—and Mr. Alexander Pazuchanics, the policy advisor at the 

office of the mayor for the City of Pittsburgh. 

We appreciate you all being here today and we look forward to 

the panel and the discussion today, and with Ms. Gallagher you are 

now recognized for 5 minutes to give an opening statement. Thanks 

very much. 

9 

STATEMENTS OF JENNIFER GALLAGHER, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC SERVICE, CITY OF COLUMBUS, OHIO; KYLE CHISEK, DIRECTOR OF BUREAU RELATIONS, OFFICE OF MAYOR TED 

WHEELER, CITY OF PORTLAND, OREGON; BRENNA BERMAN, 

COMMISSIONER AND CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER, CHICAGO DEPARTMENT OF INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY; 

KURT GRUENDLING, VICE PRESIDENT OF MARKETING AND 

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, WAITSFIELD AND CHAMPLAIN 

VALLEY TELECOM; JENNIFER CLARK, DIRECTOR, CENTER 

FOR URBAN INNOVATION, AND ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF 

PUBLIC POLICY, GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY; 

AND ALEXANDER PAZUCHANICS, POLICY COORDINATOR, 

OFFICE OF THE MAYOR, CITY OF PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA 

STATEMENT OF JENNIFER GALLAGHER 

Ms. GALLAGHER. Well, good morning. Again my name is Jennifer 

Gallagher and I am the director of the Department of Public Service for the City of Columbus, Ohio. 

I would like to start my testimony today by thanking Chairman 

Latta, Vice Chairman Harper, Ranking Member Schakowsky who 

is unable to be with us, Chairman Walden, and Congressman 

Luja ́n, and all members of the subcommittee for providing me the 

opportunity to represent my city and the work we are doing on behalf of Smart Columbus, which is the term coined by our community upon winning the Smart City Challenge. For full details of our 

Smart Columbus Demonstration Project, please refer to the written 

testimony that was submitted to your committee. 

I appreciate the subcommittee’s looking ahead of the curve of disruptive technologies, and I am delighted to have the opportunity to 

talk about what my community is doing with the collaborative support of our local governments, our research institutions, and our 

private sector. This hearing is hopefully part of many activities 

that will help disseminate what works and what doesn’t work as 

communities address these same challenges. 

Keep the spotlight on Columbus. We want to make sure that lessons learned in Columbus can empower cost effective, technology 

enabled solutions across the country, and hopefully inform public 

policy decisions going into the next decade. Mayor Ginther’s vision 

for Columbus is shared prosperity for all residents. He is working 

to make the City of Columbus America’s Opportunity City. In the 

mayor’s vision, Columbus will be the place where you are more 

likely to move to the middle class and beyond than anywhere else 

in the Nation. 

We believe access to transportation is a key component of turning this vision into reality. Our application for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge focused not on how 

to move people from point A to point B, but how to move people 

to ladders of opportunity. We believe our focus on opportunity was 

our key to success in light of rigorous competition from 77 other 

great American cities. 

This Federal grant has changed our city. Cities in the competition, including some represented on the panel, challenged themselves to push for innovation and sustainable solutions in transporVerDate Mar 15 2010 14:24 May 31, 2017 Jkt 037690 PO 00000 Frm 00013 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 I:\HIF FILES\WS_FTP\25371.TXT WAYNE
10 

tation and energy sectors. Throughout the process, the competing 

cities learned from one another and we continue to do that today. 

I am encouraged that the Congress and the President have been 

talking about infrastructure. For urban areas, the key to continued 

growth in the future isn’t just about building new highways or adding more lanes to the highways we have, we want to make sure 

that the discussion provides flexibility and options for disruptive 

technologies in the cities that want to move in that direction. 

Today, Columbus has about 850,000 people. Some estimates have 

our region growing to three million people by 2050. With this 

growth we have to be smart in order to be sustainable, which is 

why what we are doing in Columbus is so important to the future 

of mobility. What we learn and put into action over the next few 

years won’t just change transportation in Columbus, it will be 

adaptable and scalable to cities around the country and around the 

world. 

We have learned that technology, indeed disruptive technology, 

is an enabler, but not an end-all for us to accomplish our goals. As 

this demonstration project comes to fruition, we look forward to reporting to you and your colleagues on lessons learned and our suggestions for best practices and not best practices moving forward. 

As your committee considers the development of new standards as 

these technologies emerge, the City of Columbus looks forward to 

providing you information on our experience and best practices to 

better inform you on your decision making process. 

Mr. Chairman and other members of the subcommittee, thank 

you for your time this morning. I am happy to answer any questions now and in the future. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Gallagher follows:] 

11 


25371.001

Good my name is Jennifer and I am the Director of the n~=>n::trtm.~nt 

of Public for the City of Columbus, I want to start out my testimony by 

thanking Chairman Latta, Vice-Chairman Harper, Member Schakowsky and all 

members of the Subcommittee on Digital Commerce Protection, on 

behalf of Andrew J. Ginther, for me !he to rAn,re!lAm 

and the on behalf 

I appreciate the Subcommittee's ahead ofthe curve at disruptive technologies 

and I am delighted to have the to talk about what my community is doing 

with the complete and of our local research 

institutions, and the sector. nnnRT! 111\1 part Of many activities that 

will help disseminate what works (and even as communities address 

these same challenges. Keep the on! We to make sure that lessons 

learned in Columbus can empower "''""'-~'TT"'N"'"' technology enabled solutions across 

the country. And hopefully inform public decisions going into the next decade. 

nrtll'>n,~=>ritv for our residents, he is 

" In the Mayor's 

move from the middle 

access to 

This federal grant has including some 

r"'''""'>"r't"'" in this panel, to push innovative and sustainable 

so1umms in the transportation sectors. Throughout the process, the 

competing cities learned from one -""'"flnorand we continue to !earn from them today. 

Smart Columbus has 3 goals: 

Improve access to jobs through mobility options in centers. 

Connect Columbus residents to reliable transportation that can be accessed by 

aiL 

Develop a more sustainable transportation system. 

90 W, Grand Stre(;)t ! OH ! F (614) 64S.SS18 I 311@colw1lbU!i.gov 
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25371.002

Smart Columbus includes 

the State of Ohio is 

corridor, and our sm'""·"'" "'""''"'hl!'u\r 

their new grant 

will interface one another, 

across our nation, 

Within our project, we will be implementing two enabling technologies across 4 

project districts. 

lntl~arate>d Data Exchange, or IDE, is a dynamic, cloud-based 

int~•nr~•t"'"' data from sources, including planned smart city tAr.hnr>lnnri"'"' 

tra,dition;al transportation and data from other community partners, as food 

and medical service This facilitates better decision-making and 

nmnl"'m-<:r.hl'inn The IDE is a key component to an of innovation in 

this ecosystem will be where we citizens, businesses, non-profits 

and visitors to make Columbus America's for aiL 

Columbus Connected Transportation Network will connect 

infrastructure and transportation In a safe, secure 

sn,r.i·fir."' include connected smart street and a transit..P•edE3stlrian 

avoidance system for buses, DOT have 

need to do more to make these talk to each other, and 

demonstrate this at a ,.,,.,rnm·"'h'""'"j""' 

Our Four Districts represent critical POi:JUI<Bticm 

and nrr.rmotnmir'rr 

next level 

be tested, 

n•a•m•!l•u and payment options will be into a 

'"'"'.irl.,,nt" more convenient access to fresh food 

nm"'lintrr•<>nt" The Linden m:eiahrmrl1nt11rl barriers to 

health care, fresh foods and where mortality is the highest in the 

state, We are beginning our work in this neighborhood in an to provide a !adder of 

to the residents. Transportation to employment well-checks for 

their infants. and so much more, will lift the ""''..,"''""'"""" and it's residents 

to a where they can the exact same our residents in 

Othef partS Of the City "'VY>Ad,onr•t> 

j Co!vmbus I F (614) 645.5818 i 311@col<•mbws.gov 
13 


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Commercial major job hub): One of the most barriers to 

transportation is something referred to as the "First/Last mile". is the first mile 

between someone's home to public transportation and the last mile to their destination 

from their We will look to such as autonomous 

transit created a 

"'"''f""'r"'"'" to enable this demonstration autonomous vehicles and tr::>!n"'rol"\rt"'ltr\M T••~CnlrHW>nt•>s: 10 enable thiS bold 

#3) Downtown (the heart of the city): An event will allow travelers to 

plan, reserve and book a space for events. are home to the All 

American Quarter Horse which attracts more than 650,000 to the 

Columbus area, The Arnold which is the event in the 

world, competitors over 80 countries, and events like 

Ohio State in short, we have a lot visitors to our great who are not 

ne<:es:san1v familiar with it Our system will be a with our 

local tourism office to ensure critical and parking information can be 

shared with our visitors and residents information to some relief 

to these heavily trafficked times. 

l-UI~'"''·'""' (Rickenbacker Airport and shipping): The Columbus 

and coastal ports in concentration within a 

major highways. The City of Columbus 

47 percent of the country, and serves as a hub for •nnu-nrr~m 

rre:tont-!niOU•ceo cor1nA,s!ic1n and will be addressed through 

~-''"'t"'',..""' incidents at and narrow 

and street and 

will be addressed through data in+••""~t~r.n 

web-enat>led device. 

Making It Happen 

How will we make all of this happen? Through """t""""~'i"" government does not hold 

all the answers, no single sector does. Government, Universities, even local 

Civic Associations all came to help us put this and will be 

key in it. Our grant us million the US and 

$10 million from Inc. Today, our from across sectors have reached an 

additional $360 million-· and counting - additional partners, are hPr:nmrinn 

of Smart Columbus as well. 

Columbus has built an Un!lre,ceclented culture of collaboration. We are so 

the Harvard Business teaches a course called The Columbus Way. 

OH !T 

at it !hat 

have 
14 


25371.004

Jnl\tAr•mv the Columbus P:;~JinP>r~hln 

and Battelle For ""'"~"''"'"' 

Ride and Share event to educate drivers about electric 

electric vehicles from many car makers and allowed people to get the Avr,AriAm~"' 

an electric car. 

Weare 

strong 

funds from Franklin 

that does not end at the 

too because we all know that a 

is best for all of us. 

Community is criticaL that 

create the Impacts we desire, it is '""'"''"~"'''"' the way. 

A!! urban communities and r.n:nn"•~tit'n 1\/!itigatkm Our 

:;~mm-.'~"n to this is is easier said than but we have 

utility (AEP) 

The city will lead the 

electric vehicles. 

lni\IPT'm\f City of 

l"'"'rt""'""'hiin a full partner in this effort 

to provide base density -- Government fleets will 

commitments include City of Columbus, The Ohio 

and Franklin 

Smart Columbus will collaborate with fleets to obtain 

450 more electric vehicles. will allow the initial 

modernization, electric vehicle adoption and installation of a rm•rnmn 

achieve economies of scale. 

of Columbus was named No. 1 

"''"""''i7 "' public fleet operations that oernor1strare 

300 

one~ratlonal <>!ffi"i"'"''" vision for the future and ""'''""'""'""'"Y m"''~"""'mil1n ct1all•eng1es. 

led the way in compressed natural gas and infrastructure 

in this next sector. 

Steps We Have Taken 

Our team has established 19 "working that convene on a routine basis to 

discuss and solve some of most issues. Some include "Data and 

Vehicles", and "Connected '-n"~•~r~ 

with others are and 

the question of can we make 

happen?". We will find the solutions we need to grow next level 
15 


25371.005

our residents. 

of Columbus because we are 

m<>·mh,,.., and decision makers to the 

the time to 

so we can move 

We have hosted and attended multiple events and "'"'·"+;.~,.,., across the nation, 

l=nninAAt'int! Processing and the Date l=v,"'""v'"" 

our team has hosted the Nnrw<~t!i:~n and a 

delieaJaticm from the Netherlands, both to our technology goals and 

into their advancements. 

Moving Forward 

New President, new ""'"'r'""'" - how can they 

infrastructure cities? World 

other 

I am that and the President have been 

infrastructure. For urban areas, the 

building more 

make sure that otscw>sicm ""'"''n"'" 

the cities that want to move 

now Columbus has about 850,000 

growing to 3 million people by 2050. 

Some estimates have the region 

We have to be smart in order to be sustainable -which is what we're in 

Columbus is so to the future of 

What we learn into action over the next years won't change 

II will be and scalable to around the 

""'"n''I"'"' we have learned, indeed technology is an enabler, but not the 

end-all our efforts to do a few simple '"'''nrtan+ As this demonstration 

comes into fruition, we look forward to and 

""'"+'""'" and our As the dAvt=:!lnn•m.,nt 

"t<uorll<>rti• as these of Columbus forward to 

information on our to better inform you on 

n"'""'_,,,m .. m<>ktr~r• process. 

ANDHEW J. GINTHER, MAYOR 

1 Columbus OH I F (614) 645,5818 I 
16 


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schal~ovvsk:v. and members of the Subcommittee on 

you for your time this I am 
17 

Ms. GALLAGHER. And we do have a video that we showed during 

our presentation for the Smart City Challenge, if I may show that 

now. 

[Video shown.] 

Mr. LATTA. Well, thank you very much. And the Chair now recognizes for 5 minutes Mr. Chisek for your opening statement. 

Thank you very much. 

STATEMENT OF KYLE CHISEK 

Mr. CHISEK. Thank you. Good morning. My name is Kyle Chisek, 

and I serve as the director of Bureau Relations in the office of 

Mayor Ted Wheeler. Previous to my role with Mayor Wheeler, I 

was the project manager for the City of Portland on the Smart City 

Challenge grant application to the U.S. DOT. The City of Portland 

appreciates the opportunity to provide feedback to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce as a part of the Smart Communities Disrupter Series. 

Portland has been a national leader in Smart City policies specifically as they relate to utilizing innovative technology, improving 

public health, and supporting energy efficiency. We support Congress’ efforts to fund Smart City infrastructure investment and to 

better understand the challenges and opportunity facing our communities today. 

Infrastructure is more than just roads and bridges, and it includes technology to help make the transportation system function 

better. New technology, big data, innovative partnerships, they all 

have the ability to change our communities for the better, and in 

Portland these changes are already happening. Our government 

and agency partners, our Metro regional government, Multnomah 

County, the Oregon Department of Transportation, our Port of 

Portland, and TriMet are all crucial to delivering an innovative 

transportation system that allows citizens to access information 

and services quickly and easily. 

Whether it is the launch of America’s first modern streetcar system or our first statewide road user charge, OreGo, or even our 

cutting edge academic research on Smart City policy, Oregon is trying to lead the way. Portland State University hosts the National 

Institute for Transportation and Communities. It is one of five U.S. 

DOT national university transportation centers and it links the 

study of transit and transportation, urban planning, housing, and 

computer science together. 

PSU’s Business Accelerator has spawned the Smart City startups 

like Globe Sherpa which is now called Moovel. PSU is also working 

to design and implement an open data cloud, building on a history 

of open data and development of open data standards in the Portland region. Portland was one of the first cities to adopt an open 

data resolution that created an open data portal, CivicApps, back 

in 2009. 

Portland’s regional public transit agency, TriMet, has partnered 

with Google in 2005 to develop a standard for how real time transit 

schedule information is structured. This standard, the General 

Transit Feed Specifications, is now used by transit agencies around 

the world allowing software developers to build transit apps that 

work consistently across jurisdictional boundaries. 

18 

In 2016, TriMet was also awarded the Mobility on Demand Sandbox grant from the Federal Transit Administration. This grant will 

allow Portland to build on the success of its Hop Fastpass ticketing 

system to incorporate multimodal and shared use mobility options 

into its trip planning. So basically this is the goal of allowing 

Americans to plan, book, and pay for car sharing, bike sharing, 

public transit, and all from one single application. In fact, it was 

a common theme through all of the final cities on the Smart City 

Challenge to be able to do this, so we are very happy to be moving 

forward on that. 

Smart cities must also be safe cities, so Portland is committed to 

safety through its Vision Zero policy. This policy has been adopted 

by other American cities and States that no loss of life is acceptable 

on public streets and that government has an affirmative obligation 

to eliminate traffic related fatalities and serious injuries. So we are 

very committed to using Smart City technology to achieve this goal, 

whether it is deploying speed cameras, gaining data at intersections so the city can address safety issues before crashes occur, or 

ensuring autonomous or automated vehicles increase safety rather 

than pose a hazard to our citizens. 

There is huge benefits for safety with autonomous vehicles. Ensuring access to opportunity and allowing our transportation network to enhance social mobility is also a key. Transportation is a 

key to employment and that was one of the focuses in our Smart 

City Challenge grant application. 

Lastly, public-private partnerships provide cities with the alternative and innovative project delivery options. So it is not a replacement for Federal funds, but it is something that can help cities be able to deliver projects better, faster, and quicker. These 

partners can help fund new infrastructure, and my current boss, 

Mayor Wheeler, when he was State treasurer, helped create the 

West Coast Infrastructure Exchange to facilitate these partnerships. He tried to pioneer them and we have a history of doing so. 

In conclusion, with increased Federal investment related to 

Smart City initiatives, the Federal Government will realize significant returns on its investments in the form of energy efficiency 

gain and leveraging land use patterns to create vibrant cities and 

strong economic growth. In addition, by testing these in cities, 

rural communities can benefit from our lessons learned and our 

mistakes made. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Chisek follows:] 

19 


25371.007

STATEMENT 

OF 

City of Portland 

BEFORE THE: 

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE 

Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consnmcr Protection 

Disrupter Series: Smart Communities 

C:\Users\vcram\Docurnents\AV testlmonv,docx 

March 16,2017 

PRESENTED BY: 

Kyle Chisek 

Director of Bureau Relations, 

Office of Mayor Ted Wheeler 
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25371.008

Chairman Lalla, Ranking Member Schakowsky and members of the Digital Commerce and 

Consumer Protection Subcommittee, my name is Kyle Chisek and lam the Director of Bureau 

Relations in the Office of Mayor Ted Wheeler of Portland, Oregon. Thank you for the 

opportunity to provide testimony today on smart city initiatives and how they can reduce energy 

dependence, harness big data and achieve sustainability goals as well as recount some of the 

challenges and opportunities relating to the futures of smart cities. As you may know, Portland 

has been a national leader in transportation through utilizing innovative technology, improving 

public health, and decreasing reliance on fossil fuels. We were honored to be one of the finalists 

for the U.S. Department ofTransportation's Smart City Challenge in 2016. 

We arc appreciative of this opportunity to highlight the innovative efforts occurring in Portland 

and how federal programs and funding focused on prioritizing technology innovation in large 

urban areas can achieve federal policy objectives. 

Transportation Innovation 

Portland is a city of innovation and collaboration. Our scale as a "small big city", in combination 

with the region's economic interdependence and Oregon's strict land use planning framework, 

means we must collaborate fiercely to compete with larger cities in a global economy- and we 

have a history of doing it well. In the transportation arena, we have created innovative 

collaboration structures to bring partners together for critical investments. The Portland Streetcar 

(TriMct Transit Authority, the City of Portland, and private sector partners) and the Aerial Tram 

(City of Portland and Oregon Health Sciences University) are examples of collaborative success. 

Today, the Port of Portland and Fed Ex are sharing fi·eight data to improve delivery efficiency. 

In 200 I, Portland led the way with America's tlrst modern streetcar system. Portland's streetcar 

system is a national model for transit oriented development, public-private partnerships, and 

reducing energy consumption in our downtown core. For the past two decades, Portland has 

seen $6.5 billion of new real estate construction value for the city and residents along Streetcar 

lines; growth like this supports local businesses, new jobs and increased tax revenue. 1 This 

dense development reduces fossil fuel dependence by contributing to land use patterns that allow 

for people to walk, bike, or take transit to work. 

Our government and agency partners (Metro regional government, Multnomah County, Oregon 

Department of Transportation, the Port of Portland, and TriMet) are integral to delivering an 

innovative transportation system that allows citizens to access information and services quickly 

and easily. We continue to build on a history of collaboration to deliver innovation. ODOT's 

Road Usage Charge program (ORcGO) is a potential partner for our connected vehicle fleet. 

Portland State University (PSU) hosts the National Institute for Transportation and Communities, 

one of five US DOT National University Transportation Centers, which links studies of transit, 

biking, urban planning, housing, and computer science. PSU's Business Accelerator has 

spawned Smart City startups like Cilobe Sherpa (now known as Moovel). PSU is also working 

with the City to design and implement an Open Data Cloud, building on a history of open data 

and development of open data standards in the Portland region. Portland was one of the first 

1 2016 Portland Streetcar Annual Report https://storage.goog!capis.com/streetcar/files/Port!and~Strcetcar Annual~ 

j_{cport Digital-20 16.p~f 

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cities in the U.S. to adopt an open data resolution and create an open data portal, CivicApps, 

back in 2009. 

Portland's regional public transportation agency, TriMet, partnered with Google in 2005 to 

develop a standard for how real time transit schedule information is structured. This standard, the 

Global Transit Feed Specification (GTFS), is now used by transit agencies around the world, 

allowing software developers to build transit apps that work consistently across jurisdictional 

boundaries. 

In 2016, TriMct, was awarded a mobility-on-demand (MOD) sandbox grant from the Federal 

Transit Administration". This grant will allow Portland to build on the success of its Hop 

FastPass ticketing system to incorporate multimodal and shared-usc mobility options into its trip 

planning tool. The goal of allowing Americans to plan, book, and pay for car sharing, bike 

sharing, and public transit from the convenience of a single app has been the dream of U.S. cities 

for the past decade. In fact, this was a common theme on almost every finalist proposal to the 

U.S. Deptartment of Transportation's Smart City Challenge last summer. We expect that the 

result ofTriMet's Mobility On Demand effort will reduce reliance on single occupancy vehicles 

and fossil fuels. 

The City of Portland has also partnered with Waze and Google to better manage the 

transportation system. Not only is Portland providing Waze with updated information about 

street closures, Waze is committed to working with Portland on its goals to provide safe routes to 

schools for children and to help meet the City's Vision Zero goals. 

Technology to Improve Traffic Safety 

Portland is one of about two dozen large American cities formally committed to reducing traffic 

fatalities to achieve Vision Zero. Vision Zero is a guiding principle that no amount of Joss of life 

is acceptable on public streets and that government has an affirmative obligation to eliminate 

traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries. To achieve our Vision Zero goals, we are using 

technology to make streets safer. This spring Portland launched fixed speed cameras on a few of 

our high crash corridors which reduced speeds by 90%. Not only docs automated enforcement 

make our streets safer, it saves time for City Police and allows them to focus on other serious 

crilncs. 

Portland is excited to identify opportunities for piloting autonomous vehicles and contributing to 

policy that prioritizes safety. Portland City Council has been supportive of efforts to ensure that 

autonomous vehicles are helping to solve mobility challenges instead of driving around empty on 

our already congested streets. We believe the introduction of autonomous vehicles has the 

ability to significantly change our transportation systems and our cities. Ensuring this change is 

positive is dependent on local, state, and federal policy that prioritizes safe, shared-use, and 

electric autonomous vehicles. 

'MOD Sandbox grant background: http: 1/ncws.trimet.org/20 16/1 0/trimet-awarded-678000-fedcral-~rant-to-expandlrip-planning-it-platform/ 

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We suggest that: 

• Cities plan for fully automated vehicles and not half measures. Going halfway with 

partially automated vehicles, instead of fully automated, would require drivers to take 

over if the vehicle encounters a dangerous situation. In practice, such vehicles have been 

shown to encourage unsafe driving behavior, with more drivers texting, reading, and 

engaged in other distracting behaviors. 

• Create data sharing requirements for automated vehicles, given the potential to create 

more useful and cost efficient data than is currently collected through more laborious 

means. 

• Evaluate how congestion pricing options, starting with autonomous vehicles, might costeffectively reduce congestion by more efficiently using our limited capacity, as well as 

accelerating smart city investments. 

Ladders of Opportunity 

Ensuring access to opportunity and allowing our transportation network to enhance social 

mobility is a key goal for the City of Portland. Toward that end, the Portland Bureau of 

Transportation (PBOT), has been prioritizing smart city investments in east Portland and 

historically undcrinvested neighborhoods. Our goal is to provide our residents with benefits of 

improved air quality and reduced fossil fuel dependence by investing in access to transit 

improvements such as enhanced crosswalks. 

We are also exploring the opportunity to deploy 20 smart kiosks that provide real time travel 

information, free public Wi-Fi, and in turn provide data to the City. We believe these tools will 

increase access to employment opportunities and decrease reliance on fossil fuels. Increased 

financial assistance from the federal government would allow cities like Portland to expedite and 

increase the number of informational kiosks thereby resulting in more people choosing to use 

transit. 

One other technology element we are piloting in Portland is air quality sensors ncar arterials. A 

growing body of research suggest communities of color and low-income population areas often 

have more exposure to more toxic chemicals related to fossil fuel pollution.3 Our pilot project is 

a partnership between the City, Portland State University and the National Institute of Standards 

and Technology that will help us better identify the effects of fossil fuel related pollution for 

people residing and walking ncar major transportation arterials. This research has the potential 

to inform transportation, public health, and environmental policies for all levels of government. 

Public-Private Partnerships 

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) provide cities with alternative and innovative project delivery 

options, not replacement for traditional federal funding sources. PPPs can make sense for cities 

when they provide expedited project delivery through management expertise that exceeds public 

3 For more information, see EnYironmcntal Protection Agency's Environmental Justice 2020 Action Plan 

hlmsilWW\\ .epa.gov/environmentaljusticc/ej-7020-action-agcnda-cpa~:-~Dvironmen_u1Jwjusticc-strategv 

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options, but not when the partnership requires the privatization of public assets. In fact, Portland 

is strongly against the privatization of public roads, highways and other transportation assets for 

the profit of private companies and investors. 

For example, design-build PPPs can be more likely to finish projects on time and on budget than 

public alternatives, especially if the public entity does not have a track record of delivering 

mega-projects. These partnerships can capitalize on private sector efficiencies in asset 

management, for instances providing long term maintenance and operations services for a new 

facility. This traditional type of PPP replaces public delivery mechanisms, but it docs not 

substantially decrease the overall cost of infrastructure to taxpayers. 

Another version of PPPs focuses on the private sector technology advantage, a model that 

Portland has taken advantage of with companies like Wazc, and the Multi-Modal App, Hot 

FastPass and multi-modal app work through MOD sandbox. These agreements with private 

companies give Portland access to cutting edge technologies needed for smart cities programs. 

As we have seen with Portland Streetcar and other public-private partnerships, when cities work 

in tandem with the private sector, it builds community trust and contributes to increased private 

development ncar public infrastructure. Many of our public transportation projects also act as 

economic development projects due to their ability to leverage development and smart growth 

land usc patterns. 

Portland is excited about the opportunities that PPPs can provide, especially to further our Smart 

City agenda. However, we must be clear that PPPs are not an alternative to federal funding and 

privatization of transportation assets is not a long term plan for smart city infrastructure 

investment. 

Organization 

The City of Portland's implementation strategy for smart city initiatives involves an 

organizational structure developed around three principles. First, the organizational structure 

must be nimble, responding quickly and efficiently to change while continuing to deliver high 

performance, and be open to innovation. Second, the City, as the grant recipient, must be 

accountable and transparent about the expenditure of public funds. Finally, the community must 

feel a sense of ownership for the project. 

The organizational structure has the advantage of having already worked effectively to 

implement the City's most important infrastructure projects. It is a tried and true model of project 

delivery when the project is complicated and community support is essential. The proposed 

implementation structure uses the same model that has been used for major projects in Portland 

for many years: Portland Streetcar, the OllSU Aerial Tram, and Transit Mall Management. The 

private non-profit implementation entity provides nimble responsiveness, the board of directors 

ensures consistent policy leadership, inclusiveness, and focus, and the City Council still retains 

the bottom-line assets and fiscal authority. 

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Challenges 

Our successes are real, and our city's prosperity is growing. l Jowever, Portland's advantages 

have not been equally shared. Too often, local government implemented policies and made 

decisions that hanned minority communities. Many transportation and redevelopment projects 

have caused the displacement of families and communities. Urban renewal and freeway 

expansion in the 1960s was followed by gentrification because of rising home prices in the 1990s 

and 2000s. One traditionally African-American neighborhood, for example, experienced a 40% 

increase in average rent over the past 5 years. As a result, the neighborhoods best served by 

transit are less accessible to low-income Portlanders. 

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In addition. Vision Zero safety data reveals that people living in historically underserved 

neighborhoods suffer the highest number of fatal and serious injury crashes. Pedestrians are 

especially at risk: someone walking or using a mobility device in east Portland, particularly east 

of Interstate 205, is 2.3 times more likely to die or be critically injured than a pedestrian in or 

near the central city. Moving lorward, Portland and other cities need to own, understand, and 

strive to correct these historic inequities. Smart Cities will help us achieve that. 

Another challenge with the increased presence of technology includes the concern for safety. 

Over 40,200 people died in traffic crashes in America in 2016, the highest in nine years. 4 As 

technology penetrates vehicles and the attention of motorists, the risk to others increases 

significantly. This poses even greater risk to those walking, biking, and taking transit due to 

their vulnerability and because this technology may not take into account people who walk 

without smartphones. Federal funding programs and policy must incentivizc and contribute to 

safer cities. 

Other challenges for smart city initiatives include initiatives that often do not fit in neatly to 

existing federal funding programs due to their overlap between transportation, energy, and 

commerce. However, over recent years we have realized how critical smart city infrastructure is 

for Portland and other large urban areas. Smart city investments and infrastructure provide cities 

with data to better manage traffic, provide residents with more information to enjoy their city, 

and spur economic growth. 

In conclusion, with increased federal investment related to smart city initiatives and multimodal 

transportation, the federal government will realize significant returns on investment in the form 

of decreased reliance on fossil fuels and sustainable land use patterns that contribute to vibrant 

cities and strong economic growth. 

We appreciate the opportunity to testify today and I am happy to answer any questions that you 

might have. 

' lillJ:l.!inacto.org/20 17 /02115/statcment-40200-dcaths-on-amcrican-streets/ 

C.\Users\vcram\Oocuments\AV testimony docx 
26 

Mr. LATTA. Thank you for your testimony today. And Ms. Berman, you are recognized for 5 minutes for your opening statement. 

Thank you very much for being here. 

STATEMENT OF BRENNA BERMAN 

Ms. BERMAN. Thank you, Chairman Latta, Ranking Member 

Schakowsky who could not be with us here today, and members of 

the committee, for inviting me to speak today about smart cities. 

My name is Brenna Berman and I serve as the commissioner for 

Chicago’s Department of Innovation and Technology and CIO for 

the City. 

Chicago, as you know, is the third largest city in the country, a 

global city with world class architecture, universities, and cultural 

institutions. As one of the most dynamic cities in the world, we 

seek to equip our communities with leading edge technology that 

engages, informs, and empowers. Mayor Emanuel’s vision for 

achieving this is built on a commitment to modern infrastructure, 

smart communities, and technological innovation. 

In Chicago we have applied Smart City tools like open data, predictive analytics, and sensor technology to public health, public 

safety, and improving our environment, among other public challenges. These tools have helped us to become more responsive to 

our community, faster and more efficient in our service delivery, 

and smarter about our investments and policies. Step one for us in 

becoming a Smart City was examining and changing the way that 

we collect, share, and use data. 

In 2011, Mayor Emanuel launched the city’s first-ever open data 

portal, providing hundreds of city datasets to the public for the 

first time ranging from business licenses to conditions of our beaches to the largest crime dataset available in the world. One million 

people visit the data portal annually. These students, journalists, 

professors, and programmers use the more than 600 datasets available to increase their understanding of the city and produce apps 

that are useful for others. 

We also took a closer look at how we in the city could better use 

the data we collect to drive decisions or predict issues. We began 

applying predictive analytics to help the city run more efficiently 

and effectively. For example, we have been able to devise algorithms to help our Public Health Department forecast food inspection violations 7 days sooner than without the use of data which 

helps them address threats to public health more quickly. 

We have applied predictive analytics to things like rodent baiting, E. coli levels in Lake Michigan, and West Nile virus across the 

city, just to name a few. But now, data is moving outside of the 

IT department to become embedded into the physical infrastructure 

of the city, helping to function in unprecedented new levels of efficiency and effectiveness. This is what everyone means when they 

talk about the internet of things, new data being collected automatically through sensors telling us what might come next, truly 

becoming a Smart City, and that for us requires partners. 

Chicago is home to some of the leading universities and research 

institutions in the country, as well as Fortune 500 companies and 

innovative startups. In 2015, UI Labs, a consortium of Chicago research institutions and corporations, launched a Smart City accelVerDate Mar 15 2010 14:24 May 31, 2017 Jkt 037690 PO 00000 Frm 00030 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 I:\HIF FILES\WS_FTP\25371.TXT WAYNE
27 

erator called City Digital to harness the collective energies of more 

than 300 organizations to apply cutting edge technology and integrated data solutions to urban infrastructure challenges in Chicago. 

With our City Digital partners we can tackle bigger problems 

like storm management and flooding. While data can tell us what 

areas in the city are likely to flood, with our partners and new 

technology we can actually do something about it. For example, recently we combined green infrastructure solutions such as waterretaining plants with sensors and a secure network to actually collect data about their effectiveness and apply a dashboard for the 

Water Department to manage these solutions. That allows the city 

to easily see the impact of the solution and make better investment 

decisions in the future. 

Chicago is also committed to efforts that merge our built environment with our digital environment. Right now we are doing this 

through two projects: the largest Smart Lighting Project so far in 

the country, and the Array of Things. The Smart Lighting Project 

will install new LED lights across the city. Not only are these 

lights more energy efficient, but they will communicate with each 

other and city systems. 

When a streetlight goes out we won’t have to rely on a neighbor 

reporting it, the streetlight itself will alert relevant city departments. We know that simple streetlight outages are associated 

with small spikes in crime. Being able to respond quickly addresses 

the need to be able to fix the light and improves public safety. 

With funding from the National Science Foundation we are working with the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory on the Array of Things, a first of a kind urban sensing project 

that consists of a network of interactive, modular sensor boxes installed around the city essentially serving as a fitness tracker to 

collect real time data on Chicago’s environment, infrastructure, and 

activity for research and public use. 

The data generated by the Array of Things will help anticipate 

floods, traffic safety incidents, and improve air quality. With its 

data being made open to the public, the initiative supports researchers, policy makers, developers, and residents alike to work 

together and take specific actions that will make Chicago healthier 

and more liveable. These initiatives from those at City Digital to 

the Array of Things, all fall under Chicago’s bold and comprehensive vision for being a Smart City. That vision is guided by informed, data-driven decision making, and a collaborative, inclusive 

process for fostering and promoting innovation. 

Indeed, while technology is evolving far more quickly than ever 

before, the principles of efficiency, sustainability, and a better quality of life for all of our residents still ring true. The city is committed to collaborative urban innovation and to share its insights 

with the world so that we may all grow together in this process. 

Thank you very much. 

Mr. LATTA. And again, thank you very much for your testimony 

today. And the committee now recognizes Mr. Gruendling for 5 

minutes. Good morning. 

28 

STATEMENT OF KURT GRUENDLING 

Mr. GRUENDLING. Good morning, Chairman Latta, Ranking 

Member Schakowsky, Congressman Welch, and members of the 

subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today on 

Smart Communities. I am here on behalf of Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom and NTCA, the rural broadband association 

which represents about 850 small, rural telecom providers in the 

U.S. 

As many of the subcommittee members are aware because small 

telcos serve your districts, we provide broadband and other advanced services to the most rural areas of our country. Broadband 

helps solve the problem of distance by opening up new education 

and job opportunities for rural Americans, allowing them to telecommute remotely to companies in urban areas while helping rural 

businesses tap into global markets, enabling countless possibilities 

for commerce. 

Broadband connects rural veterans and others with healthcare 

specialists and helps farmers and ranchers use the internet to analyze livestock and crop data. It also provides a convenient means 

of maintaining strong social connections with friends and relatives, 

no matter how far away they may be. And when people want to escape the city for a change of scenery and some R&R, broadband is 

the driver of the tourism economy helping to connect to the ski resorts of rural Vermont and countless other tourist destinations in 

your home areas. 

While Vermont might be best known for its picturesque landscape, world class skiing, and quaint inns, look deeper and you will 

find a vibrant high-tech business community served by a state-ofthe-art telecommunications network that continue to evolve. In our 

service territory, all schools, many of the larger businesses, and 

some residential customers are now served by fiber-to-the-home 

technology offering speeds up to 1 gigabit. 

Vitality of any community is dependent on its access to robust 

economic opportunities, first-rate health care, education, and public 

safety services. Rural communities in particular face unique challenges to accessing these types of benefits. Smart Rural Community is an initiative of NTCA and for most of the development and 

deployment of broadband-enabled applications that the community 

can leverage to improve these vital services. 

Smart Rural Community recognizes that broadband access is 

foundational to community success, but it is just one part of the 

equation. These communities understand the importance of embracing and relying upon dedicated local leaders and from many 

fields and industries who work collaboratively to develop 

broadband-enabled solutions to create and improve opportunities in 

rural America. 

Since 2013, 44 NTCA members have been recognized with the 

Smart Rural Community Showcase Award for demonstrating excellence in collaborating with other local leaders to improve 

broadband-enabled services. My company earned this award in 

2014 for working with government and business leaders in the Mad 

River Valley. 

After Hurricane Irene hit Vermont hard in September of 2012, 

the State sought to relocate more than a hundred employees that 

29 

worked in the flooded State office complex in Waterbury, Vermont, 

to a vacant space in the Mad River Valley Business Park. Our company worked closely with State and local economic development officials to quickly wire the building with fiber optics and deploy a 

state-of-the-art phone system to meet their needs so they could 

quickly relocate to their new office. 

In 2015, our company also secured a Smart Rural Community 

Collaboration Challenge Grant which matched community funding 

to provide free Wi-Fi coverage to over a hundred local businesses 

in tourist areas. 

There are many great success stories from the Smart Rural Community initiative. NTCA companies have deployed connected health 

cards in public schools whose students are challenged by persistent 

poverty. They have worked with the U.S. border control officials to 

support critical security functions along our Nation’s southern border, and they have enabled local firefighters to view reported fires 

and locate nearby hydrants before firefighting teams arrive. 

To not have access to high-speed internet today should be unimaginable, yet millions of rural Americans have limited or even no 

access to robust broadband. Smart Rural Community depends upon 

a mix of private entrepreneurship, public and private capital, and 

universal service programs. These resources enable not only network deployment, but also the ability to ensure that the services 

provided over those networks remain robust and affordable and can 

be upgraded over time. 

We have made great progress in deploying broadband, but we 

still have many locations to reach and upgrade and sustaining such 

progress is a separate challenge. Recent reforms to the Universal 

Service High Cost Fund have unfortunately resulted in a budget 

shortfall that will result in fewer locations being reached, comparatively slower speeds being delivered to locations that are being 

reached, and higher rural consumer broadband rates. 

This budget shortfall hurts small businesses like ours that still 

need to upgrade portions of our network, and it undermines the 

ability of those companies to deliver and keep delivering on the 

promise of broadband that create smart rural communities. 

In conclusion, rural telcos have made great progress and are 

eager to continue deploying infrastructure and delivering services 

that rural America and, frankly, all of America needs to participate 

in the global economy. The Smart Rural Community initiative 

highlights what is possible when consumers, businesses, and other 

organizations work together to make that a reality. Thank you for 

the opportunity to testify and I look forward to your questions. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Gruendling follows:] 

30 


25371.014

N THE RURAL 

BROADBAND 

ASSOCIATION 

Statement by 

Kurt Gruendling 

Vice President of Marketing and Business Development 

Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom 

On behalf of 

NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association 

Before the 

United States House 

Committee on Energy and Commerce 

Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection 

"Disrupter Series: Smart Communities" 

March 16,2017 
31 


25371.015

INTRODUCTION 

Chairman Latta, Ranking Member Schakowsky, members of the Subcommittee, good morning and 

thank you for the invitation to participate in today's hearing focused on smart communities. 

I am Kurt Gruendling, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Waitsfield and 

Champlain Valley Telecom (WCVT). My remarks today arc on behalfofWCVT, as well as NTCAThe Rural Broadband Association, which represents approximately 850 member-owned cooperatives 

and commercially-owned carriers in 45 states that arc largely based in the communities they serve and 

offer a variety of communications services throughout the rural far reaches of the nation. The small 

telcos like those in NTCA's membership serve less than five percent of the population of the United 

States, but cover approximately 37 percent of its landmass. 

These companies operate in rural areas left behind by other service providers because the markets were 

too sparsely populated, too high cost, or just too difficult in terms of terrain. These small broadband 

providers have been leaders in deploying advanced communications infrastructure that responds to 

consumer and business demands and connects rural America with the rest of the world. For rural 

America, such infrastructure enables economic development and job creation not only in agriculture, 

but for any other industry or enterprise that requires robust connections to operate in the modern world. 

Our company is a 113-year old, third-generation, family-owned telecommunications provider servicing 

the Mad River and Champlain Valley regions of Vermont. Being locally owned allows us to truly 

understand the telecommunications needs of our customers- our neighbors and share in a 

commitment to improving our communities. We provide local and long distance telephone service, 

cable TV, and high-speed Internet services to more than 16,000 customers. Our service area spans 669 

square miles including twenty-four rural communities in parts of three counties with a population of 

28.858. 

While Vermont might be best known for its picturesque landscape, world-class skiing and quaint inns 

and Bed and Breakfasts, look deeper and you will find a vibrant high-tech business community served 

by a state-of-the-art telecommunications network that continues to evolve. Residences and businesses, 

both large and small, connect to this network and utilize the technology to compete on a global basis. 

Access to affordable broadband service is a critical component of economic development in rural 

communities and we are committed to finding ways to make this happen. In our service territory, all 

schools, many of the larger businesses and some residential customers arc now served by fiber-to-thehome technology offering speeds up to I Gbps. 

2 
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Our employees are working hard to complete the next evolution of our network to support continued 

growth in higher speed Internet services and an increased level of reliability and redundancy in the 

network. This takes an enormous amount of planning. resources and a significant capital investment to 

make this happen and there is a lot more work and investment that needs to be done. It's a time and 

money equation. 

I recently spoke to Steve Butcher. the owner ofVickeryHill. a web development firm located on 

Lincoln Gap Road in Warren, Vermont. I asked him what high-speed Internet means to him and his 

business and he replied: 

WCVT's constant efforts to improve the technology backbone in our remote region of 

Vermont puts our company on an even (and often advantageous) position with our 

competitors. We get to work from the comfort of paradise at the same speeds and service 

level as those locked in the skyscrapers of the big city. We can choose to live where we 

want, in the middle of beautiful nowhere, yet still compete with the big city web developers 

solely because of the gigabit fiber connection WCVT provides for us. We recently 

celebrated our l51

h year in business and now employ six people and work with clients from 

StJohn USVI, Whistler, San Francisco and Boston. 

This is just one good example of the types of small businesses that we need to continue to work 

together to incuhate, attract and retain here in Vermont and throughout other areas of rural America. 

WHAT IS A SMART RURAL COMMUNITY? 

The vitality of a community is dependent on its access to first-rate health care, blue-ribbon education, 

strong public safety services, and robust economic opportunities. Rural communities in particular face 

unique challenges to accessing these types of benefits and services, which many times are taken for 

granted in urban areas. For example, access to hcalthcarc is a critical issue, where the lack of 

physicians, specialists, and diagnostic tools normally found in urban medical centers creates challenges 

for both patients and medical staff in rural areas. There is also a shortage of teachers in many areas of 

rural America and those public-school districts rely on high-speed connectivity to deliver interactivevideo instruction for foreign language, science and music classes, amongst others. 

Smart Rural Community'M (SRC) is an initiative ofNTCA, and promotes the development and 

deployment of broadband-enabled applications that the community can leverage to improve these vital 

community services. SRC recognizes that broadband access is foundational to community success, but 
33 


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just one part of the equation. These communities understand the importance of embracing and relying 

upon dedicated local leaders from many fields and industries who work collaboratively to deploy 

broadband-enabled solutions to create and improve opportunities in rural America. From 

manufacturers and application developers to telecommunications providers and, ultimately the users 

who adopt and employ broadband-enabled services, a "smart rural community'' reflects a team eflort 

of continuing development and evolution. This collaboration in turn helps with the sustainability of 

the networks once built, as well as driving greater demand for broadband within the community itself 

and in other areas as others see the potential applications and uses in practice. 

Now entering its fifth year, NTCA's Smart Rural Community initiative supports three major 

programming components, including rural recognition awards, grants, and educational programming. 

Since 2013, 44 NTCA members have been recognized with the Smart Rural Community Showcase 

award for demonstrating excellence in collaborating with other local leaders to incorporate broadbandenabled solutions to support economic development, education, health care, public safety, and other 

vital community functions. Their applications arc reviewed by the Smart Rural Community Advisory 

Council, which includes representatives from independent organizations with deep stakes in rural 

America, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, the Rural School and Community Trust, 

American Library Association, and rural technology experts. These organizations are able to recognize 

how broadband technology can spark innovation and remarkable achievement across many layers of 

rural life. 

Expanded interest in the SRC program has led to additional ways of acknowledging innovation by 

small business tclecom providers like WCVT. NTCA has awarded SRC Collaboration Challenge 

grants to support community economic development, job creation and training, K-12 education, 

computer literacy training f(w senior citizens, and healthcare. These grants require rural broadband 

providers to "partner up" and secure matching funds from other rural institutions. This requirement 

compels and ensures the type of collaboration among rural broadband providers and other local leaders 

that SRC promotes. Since 2016, nearly $30,000 in grants have been awarded to support rural 

America.' 

SRC also produces and hosts educational programming events in Washington and beyond. These 

programs have addressed smart agriculture, distance education, and telcmedicine. SRC has published 

1 

.. Smart Rural Community Collaboration Challenge Report'", NTCA·The Rural Broadband Association (2016): 

~//\\ W\\' .ntca.org/i mages/stories/Documcnts/src%20co I !aboration%20cha lien gc%20report%20j u I v%2020 16.pd f 

4 
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academic papers addressing issues ranging from broadband adoption to social and economic 

relationships among rural and urban areas, and is set to release on March 29, 2017, a paper that will 

explore the economic impacts of rural telehealth. 

Separately, more than 80 tclco members ofNTCA have been recognized as Certified Gig-Capable 

Providers since July of2015, a designation that highlights how independent telecommunications 

providers are delivering the Internet of tomorrow- today.' These certified providers have 

demonstrated, through confirmation by an engineering firm or other independent source involved in 

the company's network planning, deployment or operation, that gigabit technology is currently 

commercially available with 95 percent of a designated portion of their serving areas, and that such 

service can be provided without substantial new deployments. The program has been a huge success 

a sign of vitality not only for independent telecommunications providers but also for the communities 

they serve. The SRC web site provides an interactive map of the country highlighting the communities 

that have GIG-capable certified providers, and SRC Showcase and Collaboration Challenge grant 

winners. 3 

RURAL BROADBAND COLLABORATION IN ACTION 

In 2014, WCVT earned a Smart Rural Community Showcase Award for working collaboratively with 

government and business leaders in the Mad River Valley (MRV) to promote economic development 

efforts through broadband access. WCVT had worked extensively with the MRV Chamber of 

Commerce and the Central Vermont Economic Development Council to deploy the infrastructure 

required to attract businesses to the MRV Business Park. After hurricane Irene hit Vermont hard in 

September of 2012, the State of Vermont sought to relocate more than I 00 employees that worked in 

the flooded state office complex in Waterbury. A vacant space in the MRV Business Park was one of 

the potential options on their list. WCVT worked closely with State and local economic development 

officials to quickly wire the building with liber-optics and to deploy a state-of-the-art phone system to 

meet their needs so they could quickly relocate to vacant space in our service area. 

In 2015, WCVT also secured an SRC Collaboration Challenge grant, which matched community 

funding to provide free Wi-Fi coverage to parts of the MRV. The grant focused initially on two towns 

~ "Bct:omc 3 Ccrt!licd GigMCapable PrO\ ldcr", ~TC A-The Rural Broadband Association (2017): 

bttp://ww\v .ntca.org/a\Yards-recog,n ition-programs/ 1.!.1 g-ccrti tication .htm I 

·

1 "Smart Rural Community Interactive Map''. 7\TCA-The Rural Broadband Association (2016): 

http://www.smartrura!community .com/ 
35 


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in the MRV and has since been deployed to an additional community in the Champlain Valley. We 

also replicated the MRV deployment in Bristol, Vermont. Our goal was to keep people in the 

downtown shopping areas. The Warren Store is a quintessential Vermont country store and has an 

outdoor deck overlooking the river, and if people can grab a sandwich, take a seat on the deck 

overlooking the river, and get on-line, we suspected they would visit longer. In Waitsfield, we have 

the Mad River Green, which features a lot of small businesses, including a farmer's market that 

operates on Saturdays from May through October and sees thousands of visitors weekly. 

We now provide tree, controlled Wi-Fi connectivity to these highly-visited locations. The area is 

home to more than I 00 businesses and the majority of commercial activity in the MRV (excluding the 

ski areas). Our Wi-Fi network is an extension of our fiber optic network and allows visitors to gain 

free Wi-Fi access, while enabling local vendors using Wi-Fi devices to process transactions. It is not 

intended to replace the wired broadband infrastructure that we have invested heavily in, but instead is 

designed to extend the value of that service outside of the home and business, and to provide value to 

both local community members as well as visitors. 

We also partner with another key industry- the three Vermont ski resorts located in our service area. 

We work very closely with Sugarbush, Mad River Glen and Bolton Valley to provide them with the 

telecommunications infrastructure they need to compete in a highly competitive industry. This includes 

high-bandwidth fiber-optic circuits for high-speed Internet, business class Wi-Fi, managed phone 

systems, and video services. The ski areas are a major economic driver and critical to the economic 

viability of our local economy. 

In addition to my company, other SRC broadband providers showcase the many examples of what the 

availability and sustainability of broadband infrastructure can mean for consumers, business, and 

communities in rural areas. for example, SRC Showcase companies have worked with U.S. border 

control officials to support critical security functions along our Nation's southern border: and enabled 

local firemen to view reported fires and locate nearby hydrants before firefighting teams arrive. 

Com South Telecommunications in Hawkinsville, Georgia, serves more than 270 square miles with a 

population of more than 11,500 people with I Gbps capability to almost every business in its area, 

including the Taylor Regional Healthcare System. Com South serves an economically challenged area 

in which many children do not have regular access to physicians. As part of a telehealth initiative, 

Com South supports connected health carts in schools that enable school nurses to connect to and 

6 
36 


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obtain guidance from remote physicians. This innovative use of health care technology serves students 

in need. 

In Milltown, Wisconsin, an NTCA member serving six villages, 15 townships, and a Native American 

Reservation community connected six hospitals across two states to enable telcmedicine services, 

including the ability to share critical diagnostic files with a major medical center for life-saving 

decisions when specialists are not available in the rural areas. 

Garden Valley Telephone Company, based in Erskine, Minnesota, provides fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) 

broadband connections with speeds of up to I Gbps to most of its customers in its service area, which 

spans 3,700 square miles across eight counties. In December 2015, Garden Valley partnered with local 

school districts to create a dedicated broadcast channel for each school. The company equipped 

schools with broadcast equipment and training for students and stafC providing opportunities to learn 

about the broadcast industry and acquire skills. 

Rainbow Communications, located in Everest, Kansas, received an SRC Showcase Award in 2015 for 

highlighting as many as 20 difrcrent local organizations and businesses that utilize broadband to 

enhance growth and innovation. The company hosted an SRC Road Tour to 14 communities, along 

with ten businesses and organizations, to recognize their contributions. 

NTCA 's members are fuelling broadband-enabled vitality in rural America. Smart Rural Community 

recognizes their achievements, supports their collaborative undertakings with other local leaders, and 

shines a light through its educational programming on how broadband innovations can ensure a strong 

rural future. 

RURAL BROADBAND INVESTMENT IN ACTION: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND 

JOB CREATION 

NTCA member companies continue to lead the way in deploying high-speed, sustainable broadband 

that responds to the needs of consumers and businesses in rural America. The broadband infrastructure 

they deploy enables applications that rural and urban communities can leverage for education, 

commerce, health care and government services. Broadband-capable networks facilitate greater 

interconnection of community resources and enable greater participation in the national and global 

economy. 

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In April of20 16, the Hudson Institute, in conjunction with the Foundation for Rural Service (FRS), 

released a report examining the economic benefits of rural broadband infrastructure.' It determined 

that investment by rural broadband companies contributed $24. I billion to the economies of the states 

in which they operated in 20 I 55 Of this amount, $17.2 billion was the direct byproduct of the rural 

broadband companies' own operations while $6.9 billion was attributable to the follow-on impact of 

their operations. 

The Hudson study also confirmed that while small, rural telcos produce a range oftelecommunications 

services in rural areas, much of the benefit goes to the urban areas where the vendors, suppliers, and 

construction firms that rural telcos use arc based. Only $8.2 billion, or 34 percent of the $24.1 billion 

final economic demand generated by rural telccom companies accrues to rural areas the other 66 

percent or $15.9 billion accrues to the benefit of urban areas. 

Additionally, the report found that the rural broadband industry supported nearly 70,000 jobs 

nationwide in 2015, both through direct employment and indirect employment from the purchases of 

goods and services generated. Jobs supported by economic activity created by rural broadband 

companies are shared between rural and urban areas, with 46 percent in rural areas and 54 percent in 

urban areas. 

Other, earlier studies reinforce these findings. For example, the Center for Economic Development 

and Business Research at Wichita State University found that the total economic impact of Kansas 

rural telecom companies (in the form of direct wages and induced economic activity) averaged $137.2 

million dollars a year between 2011 and 2014-" The companies included in the report spent an average 

of$98 million dollars per year on capital improvements to maintain and expand communication 

capacity in rural Kansas. 

Of course, these referenced studies only look at the direct and indirect economic impact of the 

investments and operations of the telcos themselves. As the Smart Rural Community program 

celebrates, the broader socioeconomic benefits of broadband for users cannot be ignored. A Cornell 

University study, for example, found that rural counties with the highest levels of broadband adoption 

'The! !udson Institute. "The Economic Impact of' Rural Broadband:· April 2016. ("! !udson Paper"). 

~ttps ://s3 .amazonu \\ s .com/media. hudson .org/li ks.'pub! ications/20 16041 9KuttncrTheEconom icl mpacto !RuralBroadhand. pdf 

~"The Economic Impact of Rural Broadband'' (2016). The Iludson Institute. Washington. D.C. 

(,"Economic Impact of Kansas Independent Rural Telephone Companies'' (2016). Center fOr Economic Development and 

Business Research. W. Frank Barton School of Business. Wichita State University. 
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have the highest levels of income and education, and lower levels of unemployment and poverty. 7 A 

recent Pew Study further finds that among those Americans who have looked for work in the last two 

years, 79 percent utilized online resources in their most recent job search and 34% say these online 

resources were the most important tool available to them.' 

PROMOTING POLICIES THAT ENSURE BROADBAND NETWORK DEPLOYMENT AND 

SUSTAINABILITY 

To not have access to high-speed Internet today should be unimaginable, yet millions of rural 

Americans have limited or even no access to robust broadband. Smart Rural Community depends 

upon a mix of private entrepreneurship, public and private capital, and universal service programs. 

These resources enable not only network deployment, but also the ability to ensure that the services 

provided over those networks remains robust and affordable (and can be upgraded over time) over the 

decades-long lives of the underlying networks. Recent reforms to the Universal Service High-Cost 

fund, however. have resulted in a budget shortfall that will result in fewer locations being reached. 

comparatively lower speeds being delivered to locations that are being reached, and higher rural 

consumer broadband rates. This budget shortfall cuts support to companies like WCVT that still need 

to upgrade portions of their network, and it thus undermines the ability of committed companies like 

WCVT to deliver and keep delivering- on the promise of broadband that creates Smart Rural 

Communities. 

While it is critical to deliver broadband to the unserved, it is just as critical that those already receiving 

broadband remain served. There are many places in rural America where networks have been built by 

committed companies like those in NTCA's membership, but the sustainability of that infrastructure 

and the aftordability of services remain in question. In many parts of rural America, the challenges of 

distance and density are so great that they cannot sustain even one broadband network. Section 254 of 

the Communications Act therefore rightly recognizes that our national policy is not merely about 

deploying infrastructure, but also ensuring that such infrastructure, once deployed. means something 

for the consumer- that is, "reasonably comparable" services at "reasonably comparable" rates for 

urban and rural consumers alike. If a network is built but then becomes unsustainable, or if the 

services offered over it are unalTordable or unreliable or cannot keep pace with increasing consumer 

7 Broadband's Contribution to Economic Health in Rural Areas'' (2015). Community& Regional Development Institute) 

Cornell 

in the Digital Era" (2015). Pew Research Center. Washington. D.C. 

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demand, then these outcomes deny rural Americans the benetits of broadband and represent a terrible 

waste of the resources that help to make broadband infrastructure available in the tirst instance. 

CONCLUSION 

It is clear that broadband enables and fosters innovative economic development. commerce. health 

care, education, and other activities and capabilities that contribute to the success and well-being of 

communities. Many of these achievements in leveraging broadband infrastructure for the benefits of 

communities have been highlighted in NTCA's Smart Rural Community program. Small, rural 

broadband providers arc eager to continue deploying infrastructure and delivering services that rural 

America needs to participate in the modern world. We look forward to working with policymakers 

and other stakeholders on comprehensive strategies that provide the tools and capabilities needed to 

achieve our nation's shared broadband goals. 

Thank you for the opportunity to testify, and for the Subcommittee's commitment to creating an 

environment conducive to innovation. 

10 
40 

Mr. LATTA. And thank you very much for your testimony this 

morning. And the Chair now recognizes for 5 minutes for your 

statement, Dr. Clark. Thanks for being here. 

STATEMENT OF JENNIFER CLARK 

Dr. CLARK. Good morning and thank you. My name is Jennifer 

Clark. I am an associate professor of Public Policy at the Georgia 

Institute of Technology and the director of Georgia Tech’s Center 

for Urban Innovation. I would like to begin by thanking Chairman 

Latta, and also thanking the members of the subcommittee for 

making this opportunity available to us to testify to you today. 

Smart communities are critical to the future economic competitiveness of the U.S. Over 90 percent of the country’s GDP is generated in metropolitan economies that is cities and their suburbs. 

Smart communities are not just an opportunity to increase economic growth and opportunity, but they present a challenge as 

well: Does the U.S. invest in intelligent infrastructure to build the 

21st century economy and plan for what is beyond? Or does the 

U.S. miss the moment when targeted investments and integrating 

information and communications technologies into infrastructure 

systems could form the foundation of an industry 4.0 level cyberphysical system? 

The economic opportunity presented by smart communities is 

threefold. First, the data produced by intelligent infrastructure 

promises to increase the reliability of local government services and 

performance of infrastructure systems. The data paves the way for 

building interoperable and cross-platform systems that build efficiencies and ultimately allow localities to provide higher quality 

services at a lower cost. The result is the opportunity to expand 

services and maintain more reliable and efficient systems ranging 

from waste management to transportation. 

The second opportunity is that smart communities’ data systems 

can enhance and inform the strategic planning capacities of local 

communities, large and small, with real world data on how infrastructure systems are used by citizens and businesses and how 

that infrastructure is performing in real time. Further, the sharing 

of data amongst smart communities partners and participants 

helps to build networks for diffusing policy strategies and technology models. 

These strategic partnerships form the foundation for the third 

economic opportunity that flows from smart communities: entrepreneurship and market leadership. The data generated by and for 

smart communities systems and the systems that produce that 

data form the foundation of new enterprises and new products and 

services and as a consequence function as platforms for further economic development. 

The making of smart communities follows a model of technology 

diffusion familiar in the private sector context. This, however, is 

technology diffusion in the public sector context where there is a 

necessary focus on the broad provisioning of reliable and efficient 

services and a consideration for building access to data for enterprise development. 

In the U.S., the national innovation system largely relies on publicly funded basic research and development conducted within the 

41 

network of world class research universities and national labs 

throughout the country. For decades, these universities and national labs have served as the research and development backbone 

of U.S. industry as well as of national defense. 

Research universities have extensive experience partnering with 

industry and government on technology diffusion projects. Research 

universities are built to test new technologies, evaluate alternatives, assess investments, evaluate economic impacts, measure 

distributional consequences, and certify processes, materials, products, and standards. As with any new enabling technology, research universities can play a role as a neutral third party with 

specialized technical expertise. 

Universities also are embedded in local communities and often 

have long term working relationships with local and State governments. Research universities also have vested interests in upgrading and maintenance of intelligent infrastructure in the cities and 

communities in which they are located. World class industry partners, star scientists, and the next generation of entrepreneurs all 

look for intelligent infrastructure to support their research and 

commercial enterprises. The absence of this infrastructure makes 

universities less globally competitive for talent and for capital, and 

as stated before such absences make local communities less globally competitive as well. 

There is a significant amount of research required to move smart 

communities’ technologies from design to development to deployment. There is a growing need for education and training. In research universities like Georgia Tech, we are developing new curriculum to integrate teaching and learning about innovation and 

communities, technology and cities and regions. 

We are also investing in research centers like the Center for 

Urban Innovation and the Institute for People and Technology that 

take an interdisciplinary approach to moving innovations in engineering, sciences, and computing into a complex real world context 

of communities, entrepreneurs, and industries. How to design and 

deploy intelligent infrastructure to efficiently and effectively support smart communities is one of the central questions going forward for the country as a whole and for local communities in specific. 

Building the replicable models and dissemination networks for 

the broad and sustained implementation of information and communication technologies into the next generation of national infrastructure is the opportunity and the challenge before us. 

[The prepared statement of Dr. Clark follows:] 

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Georgia Center for 

Tech Y Urban Innovation 

WRITTEN STATEMENT 

Disrupter Series: Smart Communities 

A HEARING OF THE 

Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection 

US House Energy and Commerce Committee 

Submitted By: 

Dr. Jennifer Clark 

Associate Professor, School of Public Policy 

Director, Center for Urban Innovation 

Georgia Institute of Technology 

Atlanta, GA 30332-0345 

Dr. Jennifer Clark, Georgia Institute of Technology 
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Disrupter Series: Smart Communities 

Summary: Making Smart Communities: Streamlining Research, Development, and Deployment 

Smart communities are critical to the future economic competitiveness of the United States. Smart 

communities are not just an opportunity to increase economic growth but they present a challenge as well: 

Does the U.S. invest in intelligent infrastructure to build the 21st century economy and plan for what's beyond? 

The Federal Government has an important role to play in shaping the scope and scale of intelligent 

infrastructure investments going forward. In short, the Federal Government will decide the platform on which 

the national economy is built going forward and whether it meets 2Qth century standards or sets a new 

standard for the 21st century economy. Research universities have extensive experience partnering with 

industry and government on technology diffusion projects like smart communities. Research universities are 

built to test new technologies, evaluate alternatives, assess investments, evaluate economic impacts, 

measure distributional consequences, and certify processes, materials, products, and standards. As with 

any new enabling technology, research universities can play a role as a neutral third party with specialized 

technical expertise. Further, universities are embedded in local communities and have long-term working 

relationships with local and state governments and a vested interest in the presence of world class 

infrastructure in their own communities. 

How to design and deploy intelligent infrastructure to efficiently and effectively support smart communities is 

one of the central questions going forward for the country as a whole and for local communities in specific. 

Building the replicable models and dissemination networks for the broad and sustained implementation of 

information and communication technologies into the next generation of national infrastructure is the 

opportunity and the challenge before us. 
44 


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Introduction 

"Smart communities' have captured the attention of popular audiences and experts alike. The "Smart City" 

concept promises access and opportunity as well as expanded services and increased efficiencies for local 

communities. The idea promises simultaneously to generate new revenue via new markets, products, and 

services and to save money through new efficiencies and systems optimization. Advocates argue that smart 

communities are more efficient, more sustainable, more profitable, and more inclusive. 

Economic geographers have long studied innovation as part of the broader disciplinary project of mapping 

and analyzing the spatial distribution of economic activities within and across cities, regions, and countries. In 

recent years technology and innovation have gained privileged positions of prominence in these industry 

analyses. Researchers particularly focused on processes of technology diffusion and how regional economic 

ecosystems absorb new technologies and incorporate them into existing complexes of firms, industries, and 

industrial specializations. In other words, how incumbent systems incorporate new processes, products, 

materials, and actors. 

Smart communities are a challenge and an opportunity for the U.S. The challenge is to proactively engage 

the declining, incumbent national infrastructure system and not merely repair it, but replace it, with an 

internationally competitive cyber-physical system which provides not only an opportunity for better services 

for citizens but a platform for a 21st century, high tech economy and beyond. 
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Smart Communities and US Economic Competitiveness 

Smart communities are critical to the future economic competitiveness of the U.S. Over 90 percent of the 

country's GOP is generated in metropolitan economies --- in cities and their suburbs. 1 Smart communities 

are not just an opportunity to increase economic growth and opportunity but they present a challenge as well: 

Does the U.S. invest in intelligent infrastructure to build the 21st century economy and plan for what's beyond? 

Or, does the U.S. miss the moment when targeted investment in integrating information and communications 

technologies (ICT) into infrastructure systems could form the foundation of an "Industry 4.0" level cyberphysical systems. The state of U.S. infrastructure and amount of funding devoted to it undermines U.S. global 

leadership in smart communities innovation and implementation. The American Society of Civil Engineers' 

latest report card ranked America's infrastructure at aD+, requiring $3.6 trillion in investment.2 The question 

is how can the U.S. plan a smart communities future, and the research and development necessary to support 

it, when there is such a critical gap in incumbent infrastructure systems? 

The economic opportunity presented by smart communities is three-fold. First, the data produced by 

intelligent infrastructure promises to increase the reliability of local government services and performance of 

infrastructure systems. The data paves the way for building interoperable and cross platform systems that 

build efficiencies and ultimately allow localities to provide higher quality services at a lower cost. The result 

is the opportunity to expand services and maintain more reliable and efficient systems ranging from waste 

management to transportation. 

1 From the U.S. Metro Economies GMP and Employment Report (2015-17). the United States Conference of Mayors: "Metropolitan 

areas drove the US economy in 2015. They were home to 85.7% of the nation's population, 87.7% of total employment. 87.9% of 

total real income, 91.3% of wage income, and 90.8% of GOP." 2 2017 Infrastructure Report Card, American Society of Civil Engineers 

Dr. Jennifer Clark, Georgia Institute of Technology 
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The second opportunity is that smart communities data systems can enhance and inform the strategic 

planning capacities of local communities ---large and small--- with real world (continuous and real time) data 

on how infrastructure and infrastructure systems are used by citizens and businesses and how the 

infrastructure is performing. Local communities, businesses, and citizens will be able to see how their 

community is operating rather than model its functions based on past performance. 

Further, the sharing of data amongst smart communities partners and participants helps to build networks for 

diffusing policy strategies and technology models. These strategic partnerships form the foundation for the 

third economic opportunity that flows from smart communities: entrepreneurship and market leadership. The 

data generated by and for smart communities systems (and the systems that produce that data) form the 

foundation of new enterprises and new products and services and, as a consequence, function as platforms 

for further economic development 

"Intelligent Infrastructure": Next Generation Services and Structures 

The promise of "smart" or "intelligent" infrastructure is that it will increase resilience across domains of critical 

infrastructure systems by expanding capacities and building resiliency through increased interoperability. In 

other words, by moving from a collection of discrete infrastructure systems to truly interdependent 

infrastructure ecosystems, the efficient, effective, predictable, and adaptive delivery of services will increase 

as welL 

Across disciplines ranging from engineering to computer science to innovation policy, intelligent 

infrastructures are increasingly seen as solutions to the "wicked" problems that face local governments.3 

3 See Patton, Carl V, DavidS. Sawicki, and Jennifer J. Clark (2012) Basic Methods of Policy Analysis and Planning. New York: 

Routledge. 3~ Edition. 
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These problems include how to respond to both long term and short term threats to resilience: 1) strained 

resources spread across ever growing urban populations, 2) aging infrastructures and public services 

systems, 3) competitiveness in the global economy, and 4) acute human and environmental stressors. 

In recent years, governments ranging from dense urban environments to rural communities have made 

significant investments in smart and connected communities (SCCs), leveraging the capacity of information 

and communication technologies (ICTs) to improve existing operations and develop new services. The 

resulting "intelligent infrastructure" is dependent on a layer of new technologies to collect and store data, 

combine data from both fixed and mobile sensing devices, integrate existing data sets, and report the status 

of the city to user groups including businesses, governments, and communities. These new data streams 

come from connected, self-reporting, sensing devices (e.g. the Internet ofThings, or loT), citizen contributions 

(e.g. crowdsourcing), and municipal and official sources (e.g. open government data). These new capacities 

contribute to an increasingly complex system of users, platforms, interests, and information-with profound 

implications for systems design and governance. 

This infrastructure presents particular challenges because it is integrated both into and across different critical 

infrastructures. From water and electricity systems and across built, natural, and socio-economic 

environments, robust intelligent infrastructure is increasingly required for the secure and resilient operations 

of government services and systems. As a consequence, this infrastructure-of-infrastructures presents a 

unique problem for critical infrastructure: how to integrate the capabilities and capacities of intelligent 

infrastructure into incumbent systems while mitigating interruptions, reducing exposure to threats, and 

ensuring continuity of service? In short, intelligent infrastructure requires attention in its own right as a new 

critical public infrastructure. 
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Intelligent infrastructure is quickly becoming central to the operations of critical infrastructure providing 

services ranging from water, to energy, to multi-modal transportation, to health, to communications. And, 

economic competitiveness is increasingly tied to the reliability and resilience of these critical infrastructure4 

Simply put, places without robust intelligent infrastructure systems will be left behind in the global economy 

because their critical infrastructure systems - utilities, energy, transportation, health, and emergency 

services - will be not be competitive compared to places who made the investments in cyber-physical 

systems to support operations. 

Intelligent infrastructure directly impacts the management of systems through manual and semi- and fullyautonomous interventions, such as allowing changes to traffic lights during a period of heavy vehicle 

throughput. Intelligent infrastructure also indirectly impacts existing systems by providing information 

important to design, maintenance, and decision-making from operations to city planning and administration. 

The products currently emerging in the context of smart communities are largely service-embedded goods 

built on a platform of critical infrastructure systems. In other words, smart communities cannot move forward 

without intelligent infrastructure. Smart communities require: 1) connectivity (reliable, predictable, 

interoperable, and upgradeable), 2) analytical services (expertise and assets to make data legible and 

useable), 3) data storage and management services (including security and privacy), and 4) open access to 

data through platforms and interfaces for citizens, entrepreneurs, and incumbent firms to build enterprises 

and expand engagement. 

4 See Clark, Jennifer (2013) Working Regions: Reconnecting Innovation and Production in the Knowledge Economy. London: 

Routledge. See also Clark, Jennifer, Hsin I. Huang, and John P. Walsh (2010) A Typology of Innovation Districts: What it Means 

for Regional Resilience. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society. 3 (1 ): 121-137. 
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For example, a "smart cities object"- a trash can, a streetcar, a light pole, a traffic light - requires 

embedded sensors. Those sensors require connectivity (fiber, wireless, etc.). The object requires a service 

contract to maintain and manage that connectivity. Data analytics are required to manage the resulting data 

and perform analysis. Interfaces and visualization tools are required to make the data accessible to citizens 

and businesses. Smart communities are a market-making enterprise and failing to invest in intelligent 

infrastructure misses the opportunity to provide local communities with globally competitive roads, bridges, 

and transit but also abdicates the opportunity to build a new industry around the products, services, and 

systems developed on the platform of intelligent infrastructure. 

Making Smart Communities: Streamlining Research, Development, and Deployment 

The making of smart communities follows a model of technology diffusion familiar in the private sector 

context. This, however, is technology diffusion into a public-sector context where there is a necessary focus 

on the broad provisioning of reliable and efficient services and a consideration for building access to data for 

enterprise development. There are significant private sector participants in smart communities and some of 

these firms have created consortiums to offer communities integrated and interoperable packages of 

hardware, software, and connectivity services. 

In the U.S., the national innovation system largely relies of publicly-funded basic research and development 

conducted within the network of world class research universities throughout the country. For decades, these 

universities have served as the research and development backbone of U.S. industry and of national 
50 


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defense.s Research indicates that this national innovation has been effective in bringing forward new 

technologies and in facilitating the commercialization of new products, processes, and materials. 

In the smart communities context, research universities are again serving an essential role in the research 

and development phase of smart communities innovation. At Georgia Tech, we are engaged in developing 

new policy models for smart communities as well as new technologies including data analytics, sensor 

networks, and operating systems. Through this research we have identified four key elements in smart 

communities technology projects: 1) Phased technical deployment to increase opportunities for in-action 

learning, community engagement and responsiveness, and integration of ongoing technical improvements, 

while simultaneously reducing the implementation burden on participating organizations, 2) Comprehensive 

administrative and technical strategies focused on interoperability that account for the necessary current and 

future need for systems to communicate and foster expansion over time, 3) Programmatic commitments to 

engaging the community at large, and to integrating concerns originating in everything from planning to 

technical specifications in meaningful ways and tailored to local conditions, 4) Established policies around 

open data and open innovation in order to ensure both continued access and local and regional economic 

development." 

Local governments are focused on managing growth and change in their communities and providing services 

to citizens. Rarely do local governments have internal research specializations. Although some larger local 

governments have made recent investments in innovation delivery teams, information management teams, 

5 Clark. Jennifer (2014) Siting "Scientific Spaces" in the US: The Push and Pull of Regional Development Strategies and National 

Innovation Policies. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy. Pp.1-16 6 For further information see the research project: MAPPD: Multi-Array Phased Participatory Deployment. MAPPD is a technical 

and strategic smart cities project developing a repeatable approach to scaling up a Smart City sensor network. MAPPD is a cityuniversity partnership between the Georgia Institute of Technology and the City of Atlanta and a featured project of both the 

Metro Lab Network and NIST's Global City Teams Challenge. 

Dr Jennifer Clark, Georgia Institute of Technology 
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and resilience offices, these efforts remain focused on enhanced service delivery to citizens. Further, many 

of these efforts have been financed by philanthropic investments by leading national foundations interested 

in improving the quality of life and capacity for service delivery in local communities. In other words, even 

the exemplar smart communities programs are largely experiments with limited resources, limited timelines, 

and unclear scalability. 

Research universities have extensive experience partnering with industry and government on technology 

diffusion projects. Research universities are built to test new technologies, evaluate alternatives, assess 

investments, evaluate economic impacts, measure distributional consequences, and certify processes, 

materials, products, and standards. As with any new enabling technology (biotechnology, nanotechnology, 

advanced manufacturing, photonics) research universities can play a role as a neutral third party with 

specialized technical expertise. Universities are also embedded in local communities and often have longterm working relationships with local and state governments. Research universities also have vested interest 

in the upgrading and maintenance of intelligent infrastructure in the cities and communities in which they are 

located. World class industry partners, star scientists, and the next generation of entrepreneurs all look for 

intelligent infrastructure to support their research and commercial enterprises. The absence of this 

infrastructure makes universities less globally competitive ---for talent and for capitaL And, as stated before, 

such absences make local communities less globally competitive as welL 

Rather than stand up research and development divisions in every local government in the country in order 

to assess and deploy smart communities technologies, it would be reasonable to again turn to the nation's 

network of world class universities, like Georgia Tech, to conduct the research and development work of 

smart communities and thus facilitate the path to deployment by local communities. 

10 
52 


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Finally, as research universities train the next generation of workers, citizens, and entrepreneurs, it is 

important to recognize that living and working in smart communities will be distinct from the built environment 

in which we live now. Whether the changes are immediately disruptive like autonomous vehicles or 

incremental adjustments to the skills required for living in and navigating the built environment (think 

automated grocery store check outs, smartphone based parking systems), investments in technical training 

for new and incumbent workers will be required to take advantage of the value-added these technologies 

bring to the labor market. Universities again will be critical partners in developing both these technologies 

and the skilled workforce required to capitalize on their contributions to national and regional growth. 

Smart Communities Implementation and the Role of the Federal Government 

In 2015 the U.S. Department of Transportation announced a Smart Cities Challenge for cities across the 

country. The competition was a "winner take all" grant which Columbus, Ohio won. But 77 other communities 

also applied for the grant In other words, 77 local communities across the country pulled together strategic 

plans for implementing intelligent infrastructure systems in their own communities and tailored to their own 

needs. The Federal Government has long played an essential role in investing in infrastructure and in 

emerging technologies. Smart Communities combine both these roles. And communities across the country 

have demonstrated their readiness to move forward.? 

The Federal Government has several key roles going forward. First, as noted above, smart communities 

involve technology diffusion into a complex private sector and public sector space --- and that space is also 

a place, a jurisdiction. The implementation of smart communities involves engaging real people in real places 

7 See the US Department of Transportation summary of the Smart Cities Challenge 

Dr. Jennifer Clark, Georgia Institute of Technology 11 
53 


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in real time. Therefore, flexibility and policy tailoring will be essential to successful implementation. What 

works in New York City is unlikely to be exactly what works in Columbus or Savannah or Dallas. One size 

will not fit all. 

Although the Federal Government should not set a standardized approach, the Federal Government should 

consider developing technical standards and platforms for data, connectivity, and integration of hard 

infrastructure and information and communication technologies to protect citizens and consumers from 

excessive experimentation. The National Transportation Safety Board's approach to guidance on 

autonomous vehicles is a good example of signaling to industry, local governments, and researchers about 

how to shape strategic planning and private investment while protecting consumers and citizens 8 The 

National Institute of Standards and Technology's efforts to develop the global cities team challenge and 

convene industry, local governments, and universities to discuss and develop standards is an important start 

as well9 

Because smart communities technologies cut across domains they also do not fit neatly under a specific 

federal agency. Many of the efforts to consider and support smart communities have been partial and ad 

hoc. The recent call for public comments by the Networking and Information Technology Research and 

Development (NITRO) Program on the "Smart Cities and Communities Federal Strategic Plan: Exploring 

Innovation Together" is a start at coordinating planning across the Federal Government.'" 

8 See US Department ofT ransportation Autonomous Vehicle Policy 

9 See US Department of Commerce, NIST Global Cities Team Challenge 10 See the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Program's Smart Cities and Communities Task 

Force 

12 
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Georgia Tech and the City of Atlanta are partners in a national network designed for developing smart 

communities policies and technologies with the scalability of those models to other local governments in 

mind. 11 The Metrolab Network is a network of 38 cities, 4 counties, and 51 universities, organized into "city 

(or county)- university partnerships" focused on "research, development and deployment" (RD&D) projects 

that offer technologically- and analytically-based solutions for challenges facing communities: mobility, 

security and opportunity, aging infrastructure, and economic development. One role for the Federal 

Government is in resourcing and institutionalizing these networked partnerships to support policy diffusion 

across communities and information exchange about how smart communities investments (programs, 

projects, and objects) perform as implemented. These networks allow local governments to achieve some 

economies of scale, build capacity, and avoid replicating mistakes or reinventing the wheel. 

The Federal Government has an important role to play in shaping the scope and scale of intelligent 

infrastructure investments going forward. Simply put, the Federal Government will decide the platform on 

which the national economy is built going forward and whether it meets 20!11 century standards or sets the 

standard for the 21 51 century. There is a significant amount of basic research required to ascertain how to 

achieve the promise of smart communities. Some of that research can be resourced through programs like 

the Smart and Connected Communities program or the Critical Resilient Interdependent Infrastructure 

Systems and Processes (CRISP) program of the National Science Foundation. However, the current 

resources are modest investments in basic research and not of a sufficient scale to support the broad, 

national technology deployments necessary.12 

11 For more information about the national Metrolab Network's activities in supporting city and community partnerships please see 

their website. 12 See NSF CRISP Program and the NSF SCC Program 

Dr. 
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There is also a significant amount of applied research required to move smart communities technologies from 

design to development to deployment. There is a growing need for education and training. In research 

universities like Georgia Tech we are developing new curriculum to integrate teaching and learning about 

innovation and communities, technology and cities and regions. We are also investing in research centers, 

like the Center for Urban Innovation and the Institute for People and Technology, that take an interdisciplinary 

approach to moving innovations in engineering, sciences, and computing into a complex real world context 

of communities, entrepreneurs, and industries. 13 How to design and deploy intelligent infrastructure to 

efficiently and effectively support smart communities is one of the central questions going forward for the 

country as a whole and for local communities in specific. Building the replicable models and dissemination 

networks for the broad and sustained implementation of information and communication technologies into 

the next generation of national infrastructure is the opportunity and the challenge before us. 

13 For more on Georgia Tech's Center for Urban Innovation and Institute for People and Technology's smart cities research and 

partnerships please see the websites. 

14 
56 

Mr. LATTA. Dr. Clark, thank you very much for your testimony 

this morning, and Mr. Pazuchanics, you are recognized for 5 minutes. Thanks for being here. 

STATEMENT OF ALEXANDER PAZUCHANICS 

Mr. PAZUCHANICS. Thank you, Chairman Latta, acting Ranking 

Member Luja ́n, all members of the House Energy and Commerce 

Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection. On 

behalf of Mayor William Peduto and the City of Pittsburgh, I want 

to start by thanking you for the opportunity to speak with you 

today about Pittsburgh’s emergence as a smart community. It is a 

pleasure to be here. 

The City of Pittsburgh is a resilient city. Investments that were 

made by philanthropists and industrialists decades ago have 

helped to position the city to be on the leading edge of revolutions 

in health care, technology, and advanced manufacturing. A high 

quality of life and low cost of living attracts new residents from 

across the country and around the world. For the first time in a 

long time, we are managing growth instead of managing decline. 

Given this new opportunity, the City of Pittsburgh is attempting to 

reshape the way that residents interact with our local government. 

An initial challenge of our Smart City work has been defining 

what it means to Pittsburgh. During the U.S. DOT Smart City 

Challenge, the definition was provided to us through the twelve Beyond Traffic vision elements including urban automation, connected vehicles, and sensor-based infrastructure. While these applications are vital to the city of the future, they are not goals in and 

of themselves. 

The city has been building a three-part framework for smart cities, collaboratively using technology to measurable improve the 

quality of life of our residents and visitors, building a data utility 

for government, industry, and citizens to use, and preparing our 

systems and our residents for future disruption. 

Our Smart City initiatives start with a simple question: what is 

the challenge we are trying to solve? Instead of letting the latest 

and greatest technology drive our decisions, we are oriented around 

real world problem solving. For example, the city has partnered on 

a number of projects with the Traffic21, Metro21, and newly created Mobility21 institutes at Carnegie Mellon University to use 

academic research to solve real issues in traffic management, infrastructure preservation, and transportation safety. 

An example of a successful implementation of this method can be 

seen in the city’s SURTRAC development. SURTRAC was designed 

by robotics researchers at Carnegie Mellon to solve system inefficiencies that occur as a result of fixed traffic signal timing. By detecting the volume of traffic at an intersection and providing that 

information to other signals in the network, the adaptive signals 

are able to provide more efficient light timings, reduce travel times 

and stops for vehicles. Future applications include additional capabilities to minimize not just vehicular delay, but also pedestrian 

wait times and using vehicle-to-infrastructure communications to 

optimize the flow of heavily occupied mass transit vehicles. 

The second pillar of the Smart City strategy is a data infrastructure that allows for the city to operate more efficiently and to allow 

57 

the public and private sectors to build on top of our resources. In 

much the same way that our electric grid, water systems, and roadways and bridges allowed for Pittsburgh’s success in the 20th century, our Data Utility will advance Pittsburgh into the 21st. 

We have been laying the technical groundwork on this work for 

several years. The city, county and University of Pittsburgh are 

partners in the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center, a regional effort to make public non-sensitive municipal data. For 

Pittsburgh, this collaborative structure has been a tremendous success and has brought a number of outside partners to the table to 

publish their own datasets. 

Over 150 datasets provided by local government, public agencies, 

university partners, and nonprofit organizations help citizens engage with the communities they call home. Trainings, hackathons, 

and partnerships with local libraries are producing a vibrant ecosystem of civic tech that engages with us, creating a feedback loop. 

The final pillar of Pittsburgh’s Smart City strategy is the need 

to build a policy and planning framework around the considerable 

disruption technology is going to continue to play in the way that 

we deliver services to residents. Many of the innovations in the 

Smart City space are in the private sector. Some of them, such as 

autonomous vehicles and transportation network companies, rely 

on access to public right of way for their business models to work, 

and an appropriate and even-handed framework that balances safety with innovation is required for the good of our residents. 

Pittsburgh’s strong working relationship with the Pennsylvania 

Department of Transportation and our recent designation as an 

Autonomous Vehicle Proving Ground will allow us to continue to 

represent these concerns of our residents on the subject. 

The potential for autonomous, connected, electric, and shared vehicles pose significant uncertainty for cities. For example, the City 

of Pittsburgh receives nearly 15 percent of its general fund revenue 

from parking tax, a source that could be reduced as a result of autonomous vehicles. Likewise, changes in parking demand have significant effects on the financing of public garages and parking 

minimums for development. And perhaps most importantly, technological development will create disruptions in employment for the 

transportation and logistics industry, requiring thought on the future of work and the pathways to advance manufacturing, cybersecurity, and data science jobs of the future. 

The City of Pittsburgh is approaching our Smart City deployments by keeping these three concepts in mind. We are trying to 

harness the promise of new technology to benefit our residents 

first. We believe these initiatives and others that will come can improve the quality of life of residents by improving safety, reliability, 

efficiency, and resiliency of our networks. Slowly but surely, we are 

making the investments and finding the partnerships to advance 

those goals. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Pazuchanics follows:] 

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Summary 

United States !louse of Representatives 

COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE 

Subcommitlee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection 

Subcommittee Hearing 

Disrupter Series: Smart Communities 

Thursday, March 16,2017 

Written Testimony of: 

Alexander Pazuchanics 

Policy Coordinator, City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 

The City of Pittsburgh is changing rapidly. Investments made by philanthropists and industrialists 

decades ago have helped position the city to be on the leading edge of revolutions in health care, 

technology, and advanced manufacturing. A high quality of life and low cost of living attracts new 

residents from across the country and around the world. For the first time in a long time, we are managing 

growth instead of managing decline. Given this new opportunity, the City of Pittsburgh is attempting to 

reshape the way that residents interact with our local government. 

The City has been building a three part framework for smart cities: Collaboratively using technology to 

measurably improve the quality of life of our residents and visitors, building a data utility for government, 

industry. and citizens to usc, and preparing our systems and our residents for future disruption. We 

believe that these initiatives and others that will come can improve the quality of life for residents by 

improving safety. reliability, efficiency, and resiliency of our networks. And slowly but surely, we are 

making the investments and finding the partnerships that advance those goals. 
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Full Testimony 

Chairman Latta, Ranking Member Schakowsky, and all members of the House Energy & 

Commerce Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection, on behalf of Mayor 

Peduto and the City of Pittsburgh, l want to start by thanking you for the opportunity to speak 

with you today about Pittsburgh's emergence as a •·smart community." It is a pleasure to be here. 

The culture of the City of Pittsburgh is one of innovation. The industrial base that made Western 

Pennsylvania the engine of the country was not only built on manufacturing, but on research and 

development. US Steel, Westinghouse, Alcoa, and others produced products and materials, but 

also inventions and improvements. That history of innovation led to a number of firsts that we 

sti II take pride in today: the first commercial radio station. the first polio vaccine, and the first 

robotics center, among others. 

But in Pittsburgh we're also keenly aware of the side-effects those innovations can create. When 

Pittsburgh was described as .. Hell with the lid off', it was not meant to be a compliment. Only 

through a concerted partnership of the public sector and industry were Pittsburgh's air and water 

improved. 

Disruptions in manufacturing during the 1970s and 1980s posed challenges of a different sort. 

Depopulation in the region during that time have been eclipsed only by post-Katrina New 

Orleans. Unemployment in some parts of Western Pennsylvania approached 20%. As a result 

we are now a city half the size of our peak in the 1960 census. These changes decimated City 
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government, putting us on the path to seek oversight from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's 

program for distressed municipalities in 2003. 

Yet we are a resilient city. Investments made by philanthropists and industrialists decades ago 

have helped position the city to be on the leading edge of revolutions in hcalthcare, technology, 

and advanced manufacturing. A high quality of life and low cost of living attracts new residents 

from across the country and around the world. For the first time in a long time, we are managing 

growth instead of managing decline. Given this new opportunity, the City of Pittsburgh is 

attempting to reshape the way that residents interact with our local government. 

An initial challenge in our "smart cities" work has been defining what it means to Pittsburgh. 

During the US DOT Smart City challenge, the definition was provided to us through the twelve 

Beyond Traffic vision elements including urban automation, connected vehicles, and sensorbased infrastructure. While these applications arc vital to the city of the future, they are not 

goals in and of themselves. They also relate almost exclusively to transportation, which is only 

one aspect of the broad range of services that local government provides. 

The City has been building a three part framework for smart cities: Collaboratively using 

technology to measurably improve the quality of life of our residents and visitors, building a data 

utility for government, industry, and citizens to use, and preparing our systems and our residents 

for future disruption. 
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Our smart city initiatives start with a simple question: what is the challenge we are trying to 

solve? Instead of letting the latest and greatest technology drive our decisions, we are oriented 

around real world problem-solving. For example, the City has partnered on a number of projects 

with the Traffic21, Metro21, and newly created Mobility 21 Institutes at Carnegie Mellon 

University to use academic research to solve real issues in traffic management, infrastructure 

preservation, and transportation safety. 

An example of successful implementation of this methodology can be seen in the City's 

SURTRAC deployment. SURTRAC (Scalable Urban TRAffic Control) was designed by 

robotics researchers at Carnegie Mellon to solve the system inefficiencies that occur as a result 

of tixed traffic signal timing. By detecting the volume oftraftic at an intersection, and providing 

that information to other signals in the network, the adaptive signals are able to provide more 

efticient light timings, reducing travel times and stops for vehicles. Future applications include 

additional capabilities to minimize not just vehicular delay but also pedestrian wait times, and 

using vehicle to infrastructure communications to optimize the flow of heavily occupied mass 

transit vehicles. The success and potential of adaptive traftic signal networks in Pittsburgh led to 

our successful application to the Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management 

Technologies Deployment Program application to upgrade dozens of new intersections along 

"'Smart Spines''- the two and four lane roads that arc the backbone of transportation through the 

valleys and across the bridges that make up our City. As we make investments in those 

corridors, it is a perfect opportunity to layer additional communications, stormwater, and energy 

inll·astructure supported by technology and to improve connections between historically isolated 

neighborhoods and major centers of employment and educational and healthcarc services. 
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Just last week, Pittsburgh released a request for information focused on smart streetlight 

technologies, looking for ideas from the community of innovators that will enable and enhance 

the services we provide. As we plan to replace the entirety of our 40,000 city-owned and 

operated streetlights, Pittsburgh has the potential to build out a platform for future deployments 

such as mid-block traffic detection, gunshot detection, air quality monitoring, and public wifi 

access. We are exploring new models of public-private partnership that can finance these new 

investments and help us manage the constantly evolving technology risk. 

The second pillar of our Smart City strategy is a data infrastructure that allows for the City to 

operate more effectively, and to allow the public and private sectors to build on top of our 

resources. In much the same way that our electric grid, water systems, and roadways and bridges 

allowed for Pittsburgh's success in the 20th century, our Data Utility will advance Pittsburgh 

into the 21st. 

We have been laying the technical groundwork for this work for several years. The City, County, 

and University of Pittsburgh are partners in the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center, a 

regional effort to make public non-sensitive municipal data. For Pittsburgh, this collaborative 

structure has been a tremendous success, and has brought a number of outside patiners to the 

table to publish their own data. Over 150 datasets, provided by local governments, public 

agencies, university partners, and non-profit organizations help citizens engage with the 

communities they call home. Trainings, hackathons, and partnerships with local libraries are 

producing a vibrant ecosystem of civic tech that engages with us, creating a feedback loop. In 
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response to resident concerns, the City recently used the data it publishes on the Data Center to 

create public-facing information portals where residents can find out about neighborhood 

building permits, response times for constituent concerns, and tax delinquency. 

Our push for innovation is also internal. The smart community must use connected technology 

and data to enhance city services and increase the efliciency of its own operations. Our Analytics 

& Strategy team, housed in our Department of Innovation & Performance, works with the city 

departments to enhance service delivery and ensure data-driven performance. A salient example 

comes from our Department of Public Works, which is deploying sensors in litter cans to 

monitor the fill level. By knowing which cans need to be emptied. the City can reduce the time 

spent on collection by 33%, representing a major increase in efliciency that will save the City 

money and afford time to focus on other Public Works priorities. 

A number of city departments are using custom, interactive maps to view and make decisions 

based on city data. These maps, cleverly named Burgh's Eye View, allow our fire department to 

see up-to-date building code violations- to better understand a building before entering it. They 

allow our police department to monitor 311 requests for city service and see when residents 

request graffiti removal, note excessive noise. or submit a host of other requests connected to 

their quality of life. These cases remind us that the smart community isn't just about self-driving 

cars and sensors, but has mechanisms to learn from itself. and make decisions to improve 

performance that are based on data. 
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The final pillar of Pittsburgh's Smart City strategy is the need to build a policy and planning 

framework for the considerable disruption technology is going to continue to play in the way that 

we deliver services to residents. Many of the innovations in the Smart City space are in the 

private sector. Some of these innovations, such as autonomous vehicles and transportation 

network companies, rely on access to public right of way for their business models to work, and 

an appropriate and even-handed regulatory framework that balances safety with innovation is 

required for the good of our residents. Pittsburgh's strong working relationship with the 

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and our recent designation as an Autonomous 

Vehicle Proving Ground will allow us to continue to represent the concerns of our residents on 

the subject. 

The potential for autonomous, connected, electric, and shared vehicles poses significant 

uncertainty for cities. Depending on advances in technology and cultural adoption rates, largescale deployment of these innovations could be a matter of decades or a matter of years away. 

Local governments have operated on a series of assumptions for the last half century which 

could be substantially upended by these technologies. For example, the City of Pittsburgh 

receives nearly I 5% of its revenue from parking tax, a source that could be eliminated. Likewise 

change in parking demand could have significant effects on the financing of public garages and 

parking minimums for development. Competition for precious curb space across different users 

including rideshares, charging infrastructure, and drone-enhanced deliveries could force a 

rethinking of land use patterns in the City. The potential for significantly improved efficiency 

and safety of the transportation network as a result of technology should factor heavily into any 

decision to debt-finance capacity expansions. And most importantly, technological advancement 
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will create significant disruptions in employment for the transportation and logistics industry, 

requiring thought on the future of work and the pathways to the advanced manufacturing, 

cybersecurity, and data science jobs of the future. 

The City of Pittsburgh is approaching our Smart deployments by keeping these three concepts in 

mind. By focusing on real use cases of need, making data available to the public, and preparing 

for disruption, we are trying to harness the promise of new technology to benefit our residents. 

We believe that these initiatives and others that will come can improve the quality of life for 

residents by improving safety, reliability, efficiency, and resiliency of our networks. And slowly 

but surely, we are making the investments and finding the partnerships that advance those goals. 

The mayor likes to say that Pittsburgh is small enough that you can get all of the right people 

together to get a project off of the ground, and big enough that when you do, the world takes 

notice. The lessons we are learning in our urban laboratory can be imparted across the country, 

and on behalf of the City, we are grateful for the opportunity to share what we have found. 

Thank you. 
66 

Mr. LATTA. Thank you very much for your testimony, and thank 

you again, all of our witnesses, for the testimony today. And that 

will conclude the testimony from our witnesses, and we will go into 

questions from the committee. And I will start off with my questions this morning and this is actually for all of the panel and if 

you could all maybe give a brief answer. 

Safety is regularly mentioned as a benefit of improving local 

transportation, infrastructure, energy delivery, and health care including emergency services. What improvements in safety have 

your communities experienced or are trying to achieve with your 

smart communities initiatives? 

And Ms. Gallagher, if we could start with Columbus. 

Ms. GALLAGHER. Chairman Latta, thank you for the question. I 

think on the side of safety for us, we all, most of us here know that 

37,000 deaths occur on our Nation’s freeways every year, so if you 

do the quick math that is over a hundred a day. That is unacceptable, and anything we can do to fix that is obviously a positive. 

So one of those things are just making cars safer in taking the 

human element out of it. The second is giving people other options 

and opportunities to perhaps not have to drive that car themselves. 

So with our Smart Columbus program, a few of the things that we 

are doing on the quick end is putting Mobileye on all of the buses 

in Columbus, where the Mobileye will scan as buses are going up 

and down the streets and check for pedestrians, bicyclists, other 

things that maybe you can’t see in a COTA bus, all the way to towards the end our demonstration period, the autonomous vehicles, 

and taking that human error out of the driving experience and all 

things in between. 

Mr. LATTA. Thank you. Mr. Chisek? 

Mr. CHISEK. Well, in Portland, one of the things we are looking 

at, and I alluded to it in my opening statement, was focusing on 

intersections where we know we have problems and finding out 

about problems before they result in crashes and fatalities. 

So in east Portland you are about three times as more likely to 

die in a fatal crash than anywhere else in the city, but by focusing 

on these high crash locations or corridors where we know we have 

a lot of crashes, with video infrastructure, with other sensors to 

gather data, we can track near misses and that can tell us ahead 

of time that oh, there are a lot of near misses with pedestrians and 

vehicles or bicyclists and vehicles at particular locations, and we 

can then use our civil engineering groups to create a fix for that 

before anybody gets seriously injured or killed since we would have 

the data on that. So that is one of the things we are looking at. 

Mr. LATTA. Thank you. Ms. Berman? 

Ms. BERMAN. So we are actually doing something similar to Portland because we are part of the Vision Zero project as well. One 

of the key roles of the Array of Things is to focus on intersection 

safety. There is a lot of data about actual accidents but there is 

very little data today about those near misses. And the Array of 

Things is calibrated to calculate those data, or to calculate data 

around near misses without actual need of the civil engineers, so 

it actually creates those calculations so that we can understand 

better those near misses. 

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We also actually are using safety cameras across the city to provide safety data and analytics to our police department to help 

them better understand what is going on across the city to create 

better safety situations as well. 

Mr. LATTA. Thank you. Mr. Gruendling? 

Mr. GRUENDLING. So I come at it from the service provider side, 

so you know we have worked obviously with local and State officials to connect cameras to view road conditions real time. This is 

certainly very relevant with the snowstorm that we just experienced. You know, when I left Burlington I saw that it was 29.9 

inches of snow and over 40 in the mountains. 

So there is different locations throughout the State that are set 

up, including one that we service with fiber optics up on Route 17 

that allows people to check real time to see what the road conditions are, and you know that they can deploy resources, snow 

plows, whatever, using that technology in addition to having all the 

snow plows now GPS-enabled to see, you know, on a map what has 

been plowed, where additional resources are needed, et cetera. 

Mr. LATTA. Thank you. Dr. Clark? 

Dr. CLARK. I can speak to this from the research that we are 

doing in collaboration with the City of Atlanta. And one of the research projects that we have just started has to do with working 

with the Safe Routes to School program, which is an existing program, and working with having young people use sensors to help 

crowdsource, get crowdsource with the information about what the 

safest route back and forth to school really is for them and their 

families. And so we can actually then take that information and 

make recommendations about where improvements to intersections, improvements to sidewalks can also be made. 

We also are doing that with bicycle routes so that we are 

crowdsourcing bicycle routes, so users who are actually telling us, 

using an app, what the safest routes are, what the more dangerous 

routes are, and then that information can be fed back to the city 

in order to make specific infrastructure investment to mitigate 

those problems. 

Mr. LATTA. Thank you. Mr. Pazuchanics? 

Mr. PAZUCHANICS. One of the new projects that we are quite excited about is a Smart Belt Coalition of the Departments of Transportation and Turnpike Commissions of Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. And one of the projects associated with that is to be able 

to allow for truck platooning among the major interstate corridors 

of those three States which promotes not just efficiency in the 

freight system, but also safety delivery, having the vehicles communicate with one another to maintain and safe and healthy distance 

while being able to move at a speed faster than the humans would 

be able to provide in and of themselves. 

Mr. LATTA. Well, thank you very much, and my time has expired. 

And the Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Mexico for 5 

minutes. 

Mr. LUJA ́ N. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Two questions for the 

panel: what should the Federal Government do to assist in development to smart communities? And what have been some of the challenges—maybe three questions. What have been some of the challenges that you have identified with the Federal Government? For 

68 

example, Mr. Chisek, in your testimony you talked about the challenges of being able to access different funds because of, you know, 

telecom energy versus something else, and the ability to be able to 

combine those funds to be able to deploy a project. 

And then I would say the final question is what thoughts do you 

have with access to existing infrastructure; has that been a critical 

component to being able to deploy your assets or resources from a 

Smart City perspective, and specifically pole location on light poles 

or electrical power lines, existing buildings or infrastructure that 

are owned by the city, as we talked about even the deployment of 

5G now which will present more opportunities with smart cities as 

well? 

Ms. Gallagher? 

Ms. GALLAGHER. Thank you for the questions. As far as roles for 

Federal or State Government, from our point of view it would be 

helping define those regulations, those policies, those standards as 

we move forward into this uncharted territory, but yet allowing 

enough flexibility for locals to use those to be able to solve the 

problems they are seeing in their communities. 

Second question was risk challenges with the Federal Government. I think probably the same thing on just trying to move as 

quickly as the changes and the technology in the private side is 

moving and to try to get that legislation, that funding in place to 

try to keep up with those. It is a challenge at all levels of government. 

And then thirdly, as far as infrastructure, and you know we are 

having some of those dialogues right now in Ohio with some of the 

utility providers, as far as who has what rights and priorities on 

and poles and infrastructure and so forth. So that is going to continue to be a challenge as we move forward because there is such 

a need for that infrastructure and those are conversations that we 

are going to continue to have, but I think are very, very important. 

Mr. LUJA ́ N. Anything to add, Mr. Chisek? 

Mr. CHISEK. Thank you. So I will address the middle question 

first which was some of the challenges with the Federal Government. I think different agencies have different wants and needs 

and so the city definitely would, like I said when things are more 

aligned between the different agencies so we can address it directly 

rather than in different ways. We also understand that on some of 

the procurement side of things that the rules and regulations are 

different for different agencies we are interacting with, so again 

moving that to that common alignment and trying to problem solve 

and be more innovative on how we move these things forward. 

I think as far as challenges and co-location, we are working with 

a consortium of private companies and our electric utility on deploying smart sensor technology on our light poles. You know, it 

does get complicated, but we have good partnerships with these 

private industries so we are able to work things out. Our private 

electric utility owns the poles. We own the little arm that comes 

off of the poles, so we have for a long time have had the ability 

to work through these issues with them. We are doing the same 

thing with them on electric vehicle charging stations located in our 

right of way but owned and maintained by our private electric utility. 

69 

Mr. LUJA ́ N. And as we go to Ms. Berman, for the other witnesses 

I may not be able to get to I will submit that in writing as well 

and to get your thoughts in that particular area. Ms. Berman? 

Ms. BERMAN. I will try to be very brief. Two supportive roles I 

think the Federal Government could play, one would be around coordination between the cities. We are all working on very similar 

problems. You saw one example just a minute ago where we are 

doing something really similar. The other would be there is a very 

strong focus on pilots, which is excellent. The challenges do change 

when you go from a successful pilot to scaling for an entire city and 

oftentimes the Federal support whether it be a grant or a challenge 

falls off from pilot to full scale, and so it would be very helpful to 

see the focus on helping projects go from that pilot to scaling the 

solution. 

Mr. LUJA ́ N. Do you think there would be, and that is based from 

a scaling perspective, maybe collaborative efforts even with our national labs? 

Ms. BERMAN. Yes. And that is the goal of the Array of Things, 

actually, is we are scaling a solution citywide there and it is going 

to multiple cities. So yes, the role of partnering with the national 

labs is very helpful, absolutely. 

Mr. LUJA ́ N. Thank you. And with that Mr. Chairman, I yield 

back. 

Mr. LATTA. Thank you. The gentleman yields back. The Chair 

now recognizes the vice chairman of the subcommittee, the gentleman from Mississippi, for 5 minutes. 

Mr. HARPER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thanks again to 

each of you for being here. And you know the technologies and the 

things that we are seeing already are just, you know, we couldn’t 

even have really pictured this 20 years ago or even 10 years ago, 

and who knows what we are going to see as this is developed over 

the next number of years. So I really appreciate your testimony 

and your insight into what is going as we want to make sure that 

government is not in the way of innovation. You know, it seems 

sometimes regulations get a little bit behind that curve that we 

want to make sure we give folks the ability to be innovative and 

to come up with these things that are there. 

You know, I certainly have an interest in the fact that I have an 

adult son with special needs who cannot drive. He works. He graduated from a special program called the ACCESS Program at Mississippi State University, one of the first two students to graduate 

from there almost 3 years ago. He has done a lot of stuff. But as 

we look at self-driving cars and things like that that could really 

help those in the disability community, you see some potential that 

we haven’t seen before so we are excited about that. 

And Dr. Clark, if I could ask you some questions. Of course our 

hearing is called, you know, Smart Communities. Do you see opportunities for smaller and rural communities to leverage these technologies that other cities on the panel have discussed, and also how 

are traditionally underserved communities, including those that 

are disabled, able to benefit from these technologies? 

Dr. CLARK. Thank you very much for the question because I do 

feel like this is something we need to focus on is how to make that 

work. Yes, I mean the short answer is yes, I see those opportuniVerDate Mar 15 2010 14:24 May 31, 2017 Jkt 037690 PO 00000 Frm 00073 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 I:\HIF FILES\WS_FTP\25371.TXT WAYNE
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ties. I have some concerns about how those opportunities are going 

to appear. I think we need to plan for them. 

One of the things that has been happening in the policy diffusion 

or the technology diffusion for smart cities rather than smart communities in recent years is that for larger cities vendors have been 

coming to larger cities and they have been saying we will give you 

this in kind so we can work out this technology in your city. You 

don’t have to pay us for it, we are going to work it out here. Well, 

the smaller communities are not going to get that opportunity. 

They are going to get a price tag on the technology. 

And I think this is one of the real challenges is that what is 

going to end up happening is a very uneven distribution of who has 

the high-tech technologies built into their infrastructure system 

and who doesn’t. And so I think it absolutely is important for 

smaller and rural communities to be seen as an important part of 

this story, not as an add-on later, and also recognizing the fact that 

they don’t have the tax base to pay the same prices. 

One of the most interesting, and I will try to make this brief, but 

one of the most interesting conversations I had recently was I was 

making a presentation with my colleague from the City of Atlanta 

to the mayors of the region and you know we have 23 different 

counties in the Atlanta region, it is a huge region. And the mayors 

came up to us afterwards and they said, so how do we become part 

of the smart communities partnership, how do we get access to this 

technology? 

And I thought, I am overwhelmed. I don’t know. I don’t have a 

program to direct you to, I don’t have a funding source to direct 

you to, all I can tell you is that we know we need to do this, but 

I can’t give them an answer to when. 

Mr. HARPER. Talk to me then for a minute about those that have 

disabilities, whether they are physical or, you know, we deal a lot 

with those with intellectual disabilities, so how do we incorporate 

that for them? 

Dr. CLARK. Well, and I think this has a lot to do with the question of standards and thinking about digital inclusion instead of 

digital divide, right. And so one of the ideas is thinking about, and 

we have a number of researchers at my own institution who are 

working on trying to develop the technologies at the beginning so 

that they are actually someone who had limited eyesight or limited 

hearing actually could use the technology, because we don’t build 

it for just people who can see in the first instance, instead of again, 

as I said, coming to that question later and saying oh, how do we 

retrofit this to be? 

We have the technologies to actually build these for quite a broad 

set of capabilities and opportunities, but we need to design that on 

the front end and that takes some consideration and planning. 

Mr. HARPER. Sure. Well, thank you. And I would encourage each 

of you in your roles to look at how we can do that and make sure 

that there is not a catch-up; that it is a bring-along as we go. And 

so with that I yield back. 

Mr. LATTA. Well, thank you very much. The gentleman yields 

back. The Chair now recognizes the gentlelady from California for 

5 minutes. 

71 

Ms. MATSUI. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and I want 

to thank the witnesses. It has been wonderful hearing about what 

has been happening as far as smart cities and all the innovations 

that you have utilized. Now very exciting work is happening 

throughout all the communities across our country to harness the 

power of technology. In my home district of Sacramento we are also 

moving forward to embrace these opportunities. We are positioning 

ourselves as a test bed for, for instance, autonomous vehicles, and 

encouraging the development of electric vehicle infrastructure. 

The City of Sacramento hosts an open data platform which promotes transparency and invites civic innovators to create solutions 

at the local level. Sacramento was selected as one of the 16 cities 

to join a partnership with Transportation for America and Sidewalk Labs to pilot new programs and develop best practices for 

Smart City policies and projects. 

All this innovation will rely upon connectivity. This will place 

new demands not only on our roads and highways, but also on 

spectrum and infrastructure that powers wireless communications. 

The most important thing we can do is encourage smart communities is to accelerate the deployment of 5G networks. Verizon recently announced a pilot project to offer 5G in Sacramento and ten 

other cities. I am glad that Sacramento residents will soon see 

some of the benefits of super high wireless networks and every 

American community deserves access to these world class networks. 

I am also looking at things like energy efficiency and air quality 

and I think some of you have brought this up. Cities already consume 75 percent of all energy used worldwide and urbanization is 

on the rise. These cities of the future as well as all smart communities will need to find innovative and sustainable ways to reduce 

their energy consumption. Energy efficient technology made possible by smart communities from smart grids to connected light 

bulbs have the potential to significantly benefit the environment 

and public health. 

Well, all of you who represent cities, what features of your smart 

systems have that enable your cities to use energy more efficiently 

and sustainably? Ms. Gallagher, start with you. 

Ms. GALLAGHER. Thank you, Congresswoman. So as part of the 

Smart City Challenge award that we received, $10 million of that 

came from the Vulcan foundation, and their entire goal is to reduce 

carbon emissions. So we are partnering with them on basically five 

different fronts. One is a smart grid which we are very fortunate 

in Columbus, Ohio, to have the American Electric Power Company 

headquartered there, so they are doing about a half-billion-dollar 

program for everything from smart meters up to helping us electrify homes for electric vehicles. 

We also, another component of that is fleet, changing our fleet 

over to electric vehicles. It is consumer adoption of electric vehicles. 

We are partnering with Columbus Power on many, many ranges 

for smart grid and we are also looking at just the charging infrastructure in general. So just very quickly those are just some of the 

highlights that we are hitting for the carbon emissions. 

Ms. MATSUI. OK, thank you. Mr. Chisek? 

72 

Mr. CHISEK. Thank you. Through the Smart City Challenge, 

Portland was actually fairly far ahead on the electric side of things. 

We have been working for quite some time on smart meters. What 

we want to do is take it to the next level now and move more into, 

say, port operations and how can we gain efficiency there both with 

energy usage but also electrification of some of their infrastructure 

as well. 

Ms. MATSUI. OK, thank you. Ms. Berman? 

Ms. BERMAN. So two things in Chicago, the first is our smart 

lighting project which will do an LED retrofit for 420,000 

streetlights which will be getting underway later this year, and 

then we have an active smart buildings program which for buildings that the city owns introduces building control systems for all 

the city owned buildings, and on the policy side encourages the 

adoption of similar systems for privately owned buildings across 

the city to shrink the energy consumption for our building stock. 

Ms. MATSUI. Thank you. And Mr. Pazuchanics? Paz? 

Mr. PAZUCHANICS. Sure. Two projects, we, similar to the City of 

Chicago and a number of other cities, are also embarking on a 

streetlight conversion project for about 40,000 lights, so a bit smaller but that project we expect to realize significant energy savings. 

The second piece is through system efficiency. As a result of the 

adaptive signal network that we are building we are seeing reductions in air quality emissions because the vehicles are spending 

less idle time in those corridors. Given our topography and the fact 

that you know everything in Pittsburgh sort of has to run through 

a valley in between mountains the particulate matter tends to concentrate, and so to the degree that we are able to move vehicles 

more efficiently and move mass transit more efficiently, we are seeing significant improvements in air quality in those corridors. 

Ms. MATSUI. OK. Thank you very much. It looks like I have run 

out of time. Thank you. I yield back. 

Mr. LATTA. Thank you very much. And now the gentleman from 

Indiana is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. BUCSHON. Well, first of all, thank you for being here. Thank 

you, Mr. Chairman. I don’t know. I was in Shanghai a few years 

ago and all of a sudden at about a certain time of night all the 

lights went off in the entire city. Has anybody ever experienced 

that? I am not promoting that but I guess that is how they do energy efficiency. I mean, literally it looks like Vegas and then it is 

dark. It was the weirdest thing I ever seen in my life. 

I want to focus on kind of some practical things and I do want 

to talk about rural broadband, because my district is primarily 

rural. And I really consider rural broadband like the electricity or 

the telephone of our age and especially in rural communities, so 

what things can we do to get broadband to rural communities? I 

mean, other than money. I mean, obviously that is important, but 

there is probably other things too. 

Mr. GRUENDLING. Thank you for the question. Yes, I agree. I 

think rural connectivity is, you know, certainly a critical conversation we all need to have and certainly is a focus and you know it 

ties right in with economic development. I mean, some of the challenges we have as a local family-owned telecommunications carrier 

is really just some of the uncertainty in the recovery mechanisms 

73 

you know going forward in terms of, you know, we are building the 

fiber optic network of the future but it takes time and it takes 

money, and in Vermont we have a limited construction season, 

right. We have a few months that we can actually put infrastructure in the ground and that is a challenge as well. 

But, you know, over the past couple of years at FCC, you know, 

we have seen reductions in our Universal Service funding, our access revenues, all at a time where we need to be stepping up our 

infrastructure investment in the fiber optic network of the future. 

Mr. BUCSHON. Are there specific regulations that make it difficult and more costly to do these things? 

Mr. GRUENDLING. Permitting. 

Mr. BUCSHON. OK, so permitting is, I am assuming it is slow? 

Mr. GRUENDLING. Absolutely. 

Mr. BUCSHON. Yes. And who is that primarily from, what agencies? 

Mr. GRUENDLING. It is a mix of local, State, and Federal issues. 

Mr. BUCSHON. OK. 

Mr. GRUENDLING. You know, including rights-of-way issues and 

certainly easements you know which can be challenging when dealing with local—— 

Mr. BUCSHON. Oh yes, I know. 

Mr. GRUENDLING [continuing]. Landowners. Especially, I mean, 

with fiber optics too, you know, we are putting more and more electronics out in the field with splitter cabinets and what not which 

require easements and you know it takes time. 

Mr. BUCSHON. So it is a complicated problem, because I mean I 

have schools, you know, I mean, if kids can’t get fast internet, you 

know, I mean, how can you have kids out in the rural communities 

learning when they—I literally have some people that almost essentially have dial-up. I mean they don’t have access to the internet, so that is a big problem in our country. 

So what I would like to do is if there is any barriers at the Federal level, you know, we need to try to work on those to improve 

that. And I do think at some point, you know, I have talked to the 

big carriers also about this and at some point, you know, or I am 

hopeful that the private sector can solve most of these problems, 

but there may very well be, like I said it is like the telephone or 

electricity in my view. 

I want to focus on some other practical things. I was interested 

in what you said about your streetlights because—I went to med 

school in Chicago, by the way, University of Illinois. My son lives 

in River North, so I love Chicago. 

And one of the most frustrating things of any city, but Chicago 

is one of those, is when you are driving, you know, it is 10 o’clock 

at night and you see a ray of red lights and there is nobody coming 

from the other direction, right. And you are just sitting there idling 

and then you pass the one and it turns red on you again. What is 

happening in all of your cities where you can, you know, either 

pressure sensors or visual sensors or other ways to interact? 

The other one is late at night you are traveling through a city, 

and I am just using Chicago because I lived in Chicago, and you 

are driving along and you have a green light and all of a sudden 

out of the corner of your eye you see someone fly through the red 

74 

light and you are like, whoa, because they just assume there is nobody coming. So that type of interaction I am interested in too, in 

technology, infrastructure, vehicle communication. 

And I will let you comment first and then take some comments 

from others about what they might be doing. 

Mr. PAZUCHANICS. Sure. So the adaptive signal network that we 

have tested about 60 intersections right now in the city and we 

have seen between 15 and 20 percent reductions in the wait times, 

the number of stops that vehicles are going through those corridors. You know obviously a lot of that benefit is realized at points 

that are not a.m. or p.m. peak, sort of the off-peak where the signal 

timing doesn’t necessarily make sense. 

The city actually received an ATCMTD award from FHWA last 

year to expand that pilot to another about 150 intersections 

throughout the city. So I think we are really starting to see the potential for vehicle to infrastructure communication with those signals as well, not just—— 

Mr. BUCSHON. Is that computer modeling, or how is that? 

Mr. PAZUCHANICS. It is a combination of sort of computer modeling and then visualization of the intersection itself, so sort of 

blocking out vehicles as sort of blocks within the system and then 

the intersections themselves are talking to the next intersection 

down the line providing the information. And as I mentioned, you 

know, we are hopeful that we can then provide information about 

the load of a bus, how far behind schedule the bus is, factor all of 

that into whether the bus gets a green light or a red light. 

Mr. BUCSHON. I am out of time so the other cities can’t comment, 

but what I would like to say is there is a lot of things. It is not 

just inconvenience, right, and somebody pointed out idling time in 

cities and other areas that is leading to more emissions and other 

things that goes into that is a really important issue. So thank you, 

I yield back. 

Mr. LATTA. Thank you. The gentleman yields back. The Chair 

now recognizes the gentlelady from New York for 5 minutes. 

Ms. CLARKE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank our panelists for their testimony here this morning. I want to switch gears 

just a bit and really focus in on cybersecurity, because of course we 

are in a time when you know just with some general expertise you 

could shut down a grid, right. So I would like to have a sense of 

have any of your smart community systems already been subject 

to hacking or malicious attacks either attempted or successful? 

And I will start with particularly those of you who are operating 

in cities, so Ms. Gallagher and Mr. Chisek? 

Ms. GALLAGHER. Thank you. We have not yet, but of course I 

think some of the other cities are a little further along than we are, 

so I will probably pass to them. 

Ms. CLARKE. Mr. Chisek? Ms. Berman? 

Mr. CHISEK. Thank you. We have not as well, but we have been 

thinking for quite some time about cybersecurity and those issues 

are very important to us. 

Ms. BERMAN. So I would like to give you a more general answer 

because I am responsible for cybersecurity for all of the city systems, not just the connected ones we have talked about today but 

all of our systems. And cybersecurity is a concern across the counVerDate Mar 15 2010 14:24 May 31, 2017 Jkt 037690 PO 00000 Frm 00078 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 I:\HIF FILES\WS_FTP\25371.TXT WAYNE
75 

try, certainly, and there is not enough funding for everything that 

cities should be doing in our current budgets or the small amount 

of grant money that we may be able to pull from the sources that 

we have today to do everything that we should be doing. 

The systems that we have talked about today in Chicago have 

not been hacked as yet. You never want to say that out loud. To 

say have they been attacked you actually can’t answer that in any 

definitive way. None of the systems that you have that are monitoring that because to say have they been attacked that means you 

don’t know if they have been successful, right. 

So to be very clear you actually don’t know if they have been attacked yet, right. You can say that they haven’t been hacked because that means they have been successful. You don’t know if they 

have been attacked because everything is under attack all the time. 

So the City of Chicago and all of our systems are under attack all 

the time millions of times a day and that is a fact, and that is a 

fact in all cities across the U.S. every day. 

So it should be a focus of the Federal Government to help cities 

be safer from a cybersecurity perspective. And so I appreciate the 

question because it is a deep concern of mine and of my peers that 

are focused on these issues and we take it very seriously, but the 

support of the Federal Government would be greatly appreciated in 

that area. 

Ms. CLARKE. Mr. Pazuchanics? 

Mr. PAZUCHANICS. Sure. The City of Pittsburgh has not experienced an attack at this point, but I will say that a big part of our 

success thus far has been partnership with the University of Pittsburgh, Chancellor Gallagher, himself an expert in cybersecurity, 

and a very strong program in cybersecurity that helps provide sort 

of a feedback loop for us and enables us to, you know, test out our 

systems, make sure that there is resiliency in those systems, so 

that city-university partnership is very critical. 

Ms. CLARKE. And I am glad that you mentioned that because 

part of what I would want to suggest because of the rollout of what 

you are all doing is that where you can get some partnerships 

going, particularly with the utilities you know that should be a 

bond that you build. Because you are absolutely correct, Ms. Berman, you are currently under attack right now as we sit here. All 

you need is for one to penetrate though for there to be catastrophic 

consequences. 

So I want to encourage to that extent some sort of partnering 

and I will certainly be your advocate here at the Federal level to 

see what we can do, because as we move into 5G, as we become 

more expansive in our interconnectedness, you know, the more vulnerable we are going to become. 

Just quickly, as the administrators of your community smart systems, have you taken the cyber threats into account when planning 

for the future and, if so, how have you begun to prepare for them? 

Ms. GALLAGHER. We absolutely have. We actually as part of the 

Smart City Challenge we have put together a working group that 

is solely focused on this. We have a chief information officer that 

is leading that. We are very fortunate that we have the Ohio State 

University on our team. 

76 

Another key leader for us is Nationwide Insurance because of 

course it is very important to them so they have lent us quite a 

few of their employees to help us in this effort. So you are absolutely right, it is all about partnerships and leaning on that private 

side and the university side who has already been down this road. 

So we take it absolutely seriously. 

Mr. CHISEK. Thank you. The City of Portland also has been moving forward on this issue. We are creating a chief data officer position just simply because we are going to have sensor equipment 

spread throughout the city that is vulnerable that is bringing a 

whole host of data back to our open data platform. 

So thinking through that ahead of time has been critical. I think 

our partnerships with private industry have also helped us quite 

a bit, because just like we are under attack they are under attack 

and the more we can do things together, I think the more and better results we get. 

Ms. CLARKE. Ms. Berman, did you want to add anything? 

Ms. BERMAN. Just quickly that like the other cities we plan for 

both security and privacy at the beginning of every project and 

there is someone assigned, a chief information security officer, who 

has that responsibility on every project. 

Ms. CLARKE. Mr. Pazuchanics? 

Mr. PAZUCHANICS. Yes, agreed that it is significantly factored 

into the legal agreements and the structure of our regional data 

center with that intent and expected purpose in mind. Thank you. 

Ms. CLARKE. Thank you. I appreciate your indulgence, Mr. Chairman. I yield back. 

Mr. LATTA. Thank you very much. The gentlelady yields back, 

and the Chair now recognizes for 5 minutes the gentleman from 

Pennsylvania. 

Mr. COSTELLO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Pazuchanics, I 

had the opportunity to visit CMU within the past year and learn 

about the autonomous vehicle testing and learned a great deal 

about how the technology and other types of technology have really 

contributed to what it means to have a smart community and how 

it really can create a lot more in the way of efficiency and improvement within not just a public works department but code enforcement and law enforcement, right on down the line. 

And I applaud you and everyone in Pittsburgh. It is Congressman Doyle and the other members of Congress from the Pittsburgh 

area, but in particular those in the city administration who really 

deserve to be commended. And I would like to ask a couple of questions related to that. 

The data utility system that you have, Deloitte report speaking 

about the impact of wireless connectivity to our communities estimates that adopting a smart grid would create $1.8 trillion in 

added revenue to the economy, saving the average consumer hundreds of dollars of year in energy costs. What are the biggest barriers that currently exist to deploying a smart energy grid and related to that how does the data utility help advance energy services 

to provide better resources for the City of Pittsburgh? 

Mr. PAZUCHANICS. Sure. I think one of the biggest challenges to 

a coordinated smart grid and a smart utility management system 

is the lack of coordination or cooperation among various entities 

77 

sort of providing very similar services—natural gas companies, the 

electric company, the water systems—to the degree that we are 

able to share resources and solve multiple problems at the same 

time using similar infrastructure we are going to all be better off 

and see an economy of scale. So I think that coordination is key 

across those agencies. 

I think, you know, in Pittsburgh we are very fortunate to have 

Duquesne Light which is a very sophisticated and innovative electric utility that takes that seriously and is moving toward IPv6 infrastructure. But I do think that there is still, you know, a challenge with playing catch-up with some of the other utilities and we 

could see savings if they were all working together. 

Mr. COSTELLO. And is that going to require affirmative steps on 

the procurement end moving forward? 

Mr. PAZUCHANICS. Yes. I think that a major hangup with a number of Smart City initiatives tends to be, or the way that our procurement system is structured now it tends to be sort of more purchase or product oriented rather than solution oriented. And to the 

degree that we are able to restructure to allow for some of these 

innovations in procurement to occur we are going to be better off. 

Mr. COSTELLO. I would like to ask you about, and I will open this 

up to the rest of the panelists. Let’s talk about health care and a 

smart community. Smart communities demonstrate real potential 

for a much needed transformation of health care from reactive and 

hospital centered to preventive, proactive, evidence based person 

centered focused on well-being. 

How does a smart community, particularly in the municipal administration realm, go about improving a community’s health care 

through its various applications? 

Mr. PAZUCHANICS. I think one of the key components of that is 

providing provision of first and last mile service to critical 

healthcare assets. You know, one of the major challenges in Pittsburgh given our topography is the fact that first mile or last mile 

can mean very different things depending on age, ability. The potential of Smart City deployments, particularly shared vehicles, autonomous vehicles, to enhance connection to the major hospitals 

and university systems that provide that health care, I think, is 

going to be very important and it is the way that health care and 

transportation are tied together. 

Dr. CLARK. I think the smart and connected health initiatives, 

research initiatives, actually are a big effort in figuring these questions out. And I also would just point to things like when we are 

talking about air quality monitoring one of the things we can monitor is for asthma. And so what that allows—and real time. So 

what that allows families to do is to determine whether or not 

today is a good day to walk to school or whether today is a good 

day to drive. So it gives people agency about making decisions 

about how they navigate the built environment through these sensor systems that can improve their health. 

Mr. GRUENDLING. I think telehealth is a great topic when we are 

talking about smart communities, and I think that access to specialists who might not reside in a rural area for instance, you 

know, without the need to travel to a big city hospital you know 

for certain checkups or check-ins. You know, I think with a lot of 

78 

smart connected medical devices now you know they report back 

automatically to a physician or a physicians’ group and allow them 

to monitor a patient in a home type environment. And you know 

it is the connectivity that is allowing that to happen. 

Ms. BERMAN. I would like to build on what Dr. Clark said about 

the asthma example, because smart cities technologies can allow a 

city to go beyond just monitoring and changing behavior based on 

air quality and asthma but actually doing something about it. So 

taking that information and putting policies and services in place 

to improve air quality, which also speaks to the equality of health 

in the city because oftentimes the worse air quality also is where 

your underserved communities are, so evening that playing field 

and helping families be healthier as well. 

Mr. CHISEK. I agree with everyone. But it could also help better 

deployment of resources and resources are scarce. So better deployment of these resources, be they health care, be they first responder, is one of the advantages of smart cities. 

Ms. GALLAGHER. We have been out talking to especially I would 

say our lower income neighborhoods as we have been going through 

this process and just asking them what do they see as their biggest 

challenge with health care, and what we have heard is transportation is a major barrier. When it will take you an hour and a half 

to get to your doctor’s office by the time you change two or three 

buses, go to a hub, go to the next place, it is easier just not to go. 

So we have got to get them additional solutions. Not only the 

first and last mile, I a hundred percent agree, but just make it 

easier so it becomes just another thing to do versus a hindrance 

and an obstacle you have to overcome. 

Mr. COSTELLO. Thank you. I yield back. 

Mr. HARPER [presiding]. The gentleman yields back. The Chair 

now recognizes the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Bilirakis, for 5 

minutes. 

Mr. BILIRAKIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate it and I 

thank the panel for their testimony. For the entire panel a recent 

report by Deloitte on the impact of wireless connectivity to our 

communities notes that a 1-minute improvement in response time 

for emergency medical services could reduce fatalities by 8 percent, 

which means efforts to better coordinate responses or automatic deployment could save lives. 

Are you discussing with your emergency responders how they are 

utilizing this lifesaving technology? How are you planning to use 

connected cars to better serve the elderly and disabled populations? 

Whoever would like to go first, thank you. 

Ms. GALLAGHER. We actually do have a lot of conversations with 

our emergency management. And just a quick example of one thing 

we are doing is working again, and I think it has been brought up, 

with the traffic signals and having the traffic signals talk to the 

vehicles and talk to each other. So whether it is you know an emergency vehicle is coming, you keep the lights green, you stop the 

other vehicles so they can have quick passage you know that is one 

example. 

Another one perhaps is them specifically talking to each other 

and you know figuring out who is the closest and that sort of thing 

79 

per the cars, they are not having to go through dispatch, and just 

a variety of things. But we are having those conversations. 

Mr. BILIRAKIS. Yes, please. 

Mr. CHISEK. It does go back to that deployment of resources 

issue. So typically we have been sending fire trucks and ambulances to medical calls; by using this technology to triage that and 

pull the medical calls out we can better deploy our fire resources. 

We are also deploying some smart cities kiosks that can also be 

used as gathering points for information for the public in the event 

of a disaster. We have all heard about the Cascadia Subduction’s 

own earthquake that is supposedly going to hit the West Coast, so 

that is also one of our strategies around resiliency. 

Mr. BILIRAKIS. Very good. Ms. Berman? 

Ms. BERMAN. We took a slightly alternative approach to getting 

emergency resources to where they needed to be. We did an analytics analysis of all of our 911 calls and there are pockets of recurring 911 calls around train stations, et cetera, during commutes, so 

now we pre-deploy ambulances and have them waiting, so that cuts 

your response time down quite a bit when the ambulance is already there. So we are doing things like that. 

Mr. BILIRAKIS. Very good. Sir? 

Mr. GRUENDLING. Thank you. We are definitely having these conversations at both the State and local levels with our first responders. Obviously we are a critical part of that enhanced 911 system 

in the State of Vermont, so you know those conversations and the 

technology pieces and components that make that up are certainly 

ongoing. And you know one of the big initiatives that our State and 

working with our schools we have been trying to really enhance the 

location-specific 911 in those schools, which is something you know 

that is still in process. 

Mr. BILIRAKIS. Anyone else? Dr. Clark? 

Dr. CLARK. From the research perspective, one of the things we 

are seeing is that different partners have different data available. 

So for first responders if they can, particularly when we are talking 

about events, these natural events like a storm, if they can get information from the utilities about the conditions on the ground 

they can respond much, much quicker and more safely to an event 

and help people. And it is building those partnerships and that 

trust so there is actually data exchanged is one of the things we 

think there could be a lot of value added. 

Mr. BILIRAKIS. Very good. Would you like to—— 

Mr. PAZUCHANICS. To answer your second question regarding mobility for the elderly and integration of these technologies into elderly populations, one of the key initiatives we have been doing in 

that regard is building a level of technical sophistication with our 

elderly population, getting some of these technologies deployed out 

to our senior centers throughout the city, and enabling residents to 

understand how the system works so that new technologies such as 

TMCs and autonomous vehicles are a little bit less unfamiliar to 

that population. 

Mr. BILIRAKIS. Very good. Next question, I know I don’t have a 

lot of time. I understand from a recent Deloitte report on the impact of wireless connectivity to our communities consumers are increasingly more attracted to wireless innovation with their health 

80 

care with 70 percent saying that they would be interested in some 

form of connected healthcare service. 

What are your cities doing to help educate older citizens to the 

positive benefits of this technology? Who would like to go? I know 

we only have a couple of seconds. 

Mr. CHISEK. So we are partnering with community organizations 

to help explain the technologies and the capabilities to some of our 

different populations in elderly, minority community as well. So we 

are using trusted voices in their community that they already have 

a relationship with to help communicate those things to those populations. 

Mr. BILIRAKIS. Very good. Anyone else have any ideas? 

Ms. BERMAN. We partner with Microsoft to provide a program 

called Cyber Seniors in our senior centers and libraries that teaches them basic computer skills if they need that and also how to use 

those skills to connect with their doctors, hospitals, and also nonmedical resources as well so that they can get the resources they 

need online and learn those skills. 

Mr. BILIRAKIS. How effective has that been? 

Ms. BERMAN. We have had actually pretty good uptake. We 

trained more than a hundred thousand seniors in Chicago last 

year, and we are seeing increased uptake moving into this year. 

Mr. BILIRAKIS. Anyone else? OK, I will yield back. Thank you, 

Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. HARPER. The gentleman yields back. Seeing that there are 

no further members wishing to ask questions, I would like to thank 

all of our witnesses again for being here. I am sure when this was 

scheduled you didn’t know you would have a snowstorm to get 

through, so I hope the travel wasn’t too difficult, but we appreciate 

the effort and your attendance today. 

Before we conclude, I would like to include the following documents to be submitted for the record by unanimous consent: a 

statement from a CA Technologies, a statement from Honda North 

America, a statement from Panasonic, a statement from ITS America, a joint statement from CompTIA and Technology Councils of 

North America, a joint statement from ITI, CompTIA, Smart Cities 

Council and TIA, and a Deloitte report from CTIA for the record 

as well as a letter from EPIC. And, without objection, those are admitted. 

[The information appears at the conclusion of the hearing.] 

Mr. HARPER. And pursuant to committee rules, I remind members that they have 10 business days to submit additional questions for the record, and I ask that witnesses submit the response 

within 10 business days upon receipt of the questions. Without objection, the subcommittee is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 11:57 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 

[Material submitted for inclusion in the record follows:] 

81 


25371.046

CA TECHNOLOGIES I Business rewritten by software 

U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and 

Consumer Protection 

Hearing: "Disrupter Series: Smart Communities" 

Statement for the Record: 

David J. Bressler, Vice President, API Management Solutions 

CA Technologies 

March 16, 2017 

10:00 a.m. 

ca. 

technologies 
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25371.047

There's a nuance to the source of the application economy's magic that many overlook. It's not about 

the app store, not about the ability to easily find and download an app for anything. It's about the 

creation process. 

There are billions of mobile computers in people's pockets. That means there is an army of incredibly talented developers creating experiences. It's into this that smart cities are going to emerge as a platform 

for creative types to integrate into the mobile economy. 

The short-term benefit of automation, or reduced cost of data collection, or more data, is just setting the 

stage. The real benefit comes when industries are able to do things that are different from the past because of the smartness embedded in the infrastructure. These ideas will not necessarily come from the 

people who are lighting up the city, but from others who experience the city and want to make it a better place. 

In a world of "smart cities" anyone, anywhere in the world, can create an application or "experience" 

using the world's smart city infrastructure as the starting point. 

In New York, some of the subways have sensors and commuters can see how long they have to wait in 

the station. This kind of information is available elsewhere in the world, like France who are also building 

a bus tracking system to provide real time information on location and time to arrival of buses in India. 

What should tracking subways or busses make news? It seems obvious that operators should use GPS to 

track them, and determine arrival times. 

What's interesting isn't just tracking buses. The really exciting angle is the future, when bus data becomes available through secure A Pis for people who want to create new commuting experiences. 

Individuals who have a multi-hop commute would use schedules, current traffic conditions and expected 

traffic patterns based on history, and commuters could get an alert of the best bus to catch to minimize 

the commute across multiple hops and the waits between hops. 

The city itself might not create such an app, but the smart-city platform creates the opportunity for the 

app to be created. Such an app might be best created by the person who experiences the commute (and 

knows the tricks), rather than someone who sits in an office imagining what such a commute is like. 

CA Technologies recommends that communities focus on platforms and security when considering new 

initiatives to leverage "smart" technologies to unlock innovation. 

First, communities should make public information and data accessible through read-write Application 

Programming Interfaces (APis). 

Healthcare IT provides a useful example. FHIR- Fast Healthcare lnteroperability Resources- is an 

Application Programming Interface (API) standard that uses the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) 

standard to represent data. FHIR has captured the imagination of a global pool of developers who see 

opportunities to innovate in healthcare. This represents a "bottom's up" approach to building a platform 

for healthcare innovation. A similar approach can be leveraged on behalf of Smart Communities. In 

2 
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25371.048

addition, Smart Communities provide an opportunity for overcoming challenges of interoperability, 

which still face the healthcare IT industry. 

Smart-city platforms should follow the model for creating a modern software factory for innovation. This 

model incorporates security, compliance, and quality and would ensure that the smart-city platform is 

used "properly." Done well, the people who need to know how it's being used have all the insight they 

need. They can use what they learn about usage patterns to cultivate it to meaningfully impact people's 

lives. 

Security can't just be a feature, or an afterthought. Rather, security must be a core element on which 

the Smart City builds trust; without trust, there is no Smart City. 

Security of the A Pis must be built into the infrastructure when exposing public data for private sector 

innovation. Many API platforms ignore a platform level of security that would ensure consistent security 

policy across development teams to protect both data and infrastructure. 

When security is part of the platform, security officers own and deploy policies to manage governance, 

compliance, and security. 

Once the infrastructure is secure, we need to ensure three aspects of identity authorization within the 

smart city framework to ensure accountability and risk management. 

Developers must be able to rapidly access security authorization protocols easily, so that security is 

implemented properly (and not as an afterthought) without presenting a barrier to innovation. Security 

must ensure that citizens are protected, and also respected. Where possible, the citizen experience 

should be preserved while providing security; security should not be a barrier to the enjoyment and 

participation in the smart city experience. 

As such, there are three elements to identity and authorization to be considered. At CA we consider 

these the 'Authentication Triangle'"' that allows to provide 'Authentication in Depth'"': 

1. Citizen. The person. The 'user'. We know how to identify people, even digitally. The technology for 

mobile identity is catching up, but also fragmenting (between things like mobile phone, smart 

watches, and various biometrics like voice or facial-recognition that are emerging). Cities need a 

simple way for developers to leverage the latest user identification technology; 

2. App. Often activities allowed in one app, are not allowed in another. Learning context of the digital 

activities being performed from the app, and using that to manage risk and user rights enhances the 

ability to protect user data and identity; 

3. Device. The third piece of the Authentication Triangle is the device. Devices must be authenticated 

so that we can ensure the integrity of data being exchanged between devices, applications, and 

back-end data systems. 

Using these three elements the Smart City can balance security risk centrally, ensure citizen experience 

when participating in the Smart City offerings, and provide the best possible developer experience for 

creating secure applications. 

Making it real -two broad use cases we are delivering through Latin American cities, where citizen's 

initial computing experience is often through their mobile device 

A mobile, digitaiiD. Every time the government needs ID multiple identifications are required. The policy 

is opaque, sometimes hard to follow. It's frustrating for those who trade time for money, because time 

3 
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taken to prove something as "simple as" identity is time not earning a living. A single digital identity 

connected to a smart city would streamline every single interaction with the government (and pseudo 

government organizations like hospitals, utilities, etc.) 

Moving paperwork from one department to another is an onerous, time-consuming, and unnecessary 

process. When citizens need to take paper from one part of the government to another, it's obvious the 

government is not connected, not focused on the citizen. One example is the need for parents to 

physically take a child's proof of immunization to their school. In an age of mobile devices that are 

literally with us at all times, why does one need to have a piece of paper printed at the doctor and 

delivered to a school? 

Citizens face the same obstacle when providing proof of residence for payroll taxes or car insurance. Or 

for sharing health insurance information with healthcare providers. 

Smart Communities provide significant opportunities for reducing costs, enhancing citizen services, and 

improving quality of life. In many ways, they represent low hanging opportunities we can pick easily to 

start to build both a platform and the trust necessary to get citizen involvement in Smart Communities 

innovation. 
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March 16, 2017 

The Honorable Robert Latta, Chairman 

Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection 

2125 Rayburn House Office Building 

Washington, DC 20515 

The Honorable Janice Schakowsky, Ranking Member 

Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection 

2322A Rayburn House Office Building 

Washington, DC 2051S 

Dear Chairman Latta and Ranking Member Schakowsky, 

HONDA 

Honda North America, Inc. 1001 G. Street, N.W. Suile950 

Washmgton, DC 20001 

Phone {202) 661~4400 

Thank you for this opportunity to share Honda North America, Inc.'s (Honda) views on the Disrupter 

Series: Smart Communities hearing. As a supporter of and partner with the City of Columbus in their 

Smart Columbus project, Honda is pleased that the Subcommittee convened this hearing to showcase all 

that Columbus and cities across the country are doing to incorporate innovative technology to increase 

safety, mobility, and efficiency of services for their residents. 

Honda has been investing and manufacturing in the U.S. for more than 40 years. This includes $27 billion 

in purchases of parts and materials from 610 U.S. suppliers in 2016. Honda has made capital 

investments of $3 billion in its U.S. factories over the past four years alone, and more than $17 billion 

since we began operations in the U.S. Our 12 manufacturing plants produce vehicles, power equipment, 

and power sports. The U.S. also hosts the global headquarters for HondaJet. Honda directly employs 

30,000 Americans and has never laid off a permanent associate. 

In Marysville, Ohio, about 30 miles from the City of Columbus, Honda has two manufacturing plants that 

produce the Honda Accord Sedan and Coupe, the Acura I LX, the Acura TLX, and the Acura NSX, the only 

supercar manufactured in the U.S. Marysville is also home to Honda's U.S. manufacturing and research 

and development headquarters. 

Honda shares the City of Columbus' vision for the Smart Columbus project to "implement a holistic 

vision for how technology can help all residents move more easily and to access opportunity."1 As 

Honda strives "to be a company that society wants to exist," we intend to support Columbus' vision by 

deploying technologies that enhance mobility and road user safety. 

Honda plans to work with the City of Columbus on issues related to data integration, autonomous 

vehicles, connected vehicles, and implementing advanced sensors and cameras at intersections. Honda 

also intends to make electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles available for the city. The vehicles would 

include the Fit EV and the Clarity Plug-In Hybrid which is scheduled to be released later this year. Honda 

1 Smart Columbus, City of Columbus website (March 14, 2017), https:Uwww.columbus.gov/smartcolum~ 
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HONDA NORTH AMERICA, INC.- PAGE 2 

also plans to advise the City of Columbus on electric vehicle charging requirements and the application 

of vehicle charging and electric utility and renewable generator coordination (Vehicle/Grid Integration). 

In addition to working within the City of Columbus, Honda will also launch a comprehensive effort along 

State Route 33 between Columbus and East liberty to study traffic congestion mitigation and improve 

safety for all road users. This route would provide the opportunity to effectively analyze vehicle-tovehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications technologies. 

Honda looks forward to working with the Subcommittee to ensure that these projects enjoy a smooth 

process to completion, and consumers enjoy the full potential of these life-saving technologies. 
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As Ballery Costs FaU, Deployments and Installation Forecasts Begin ScalilllJ 

Revenue Stacking with Mu!ti·Use Storage Systems Unlock Greater Marl<et Potential 

Pena Station NEXT Becomes a Proving Ground for Battery and Other Technologies 

Youmcos 

A Public·Private Partnership Yields a Portfolio Microgrid 
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ITS~ /Vv\ERICA 

ITS America Statement for the Record 

"Disrupter Series: Smart Communities" Hearing 

House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and 

Consumer Protection 

March 16,2017 

On behalf of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America), we appreciate and 

welcome the Subcommittee's consideration of policy measures that improve and enhance the deployment 

of sma11 communities. 

ITS America is the nation's leading advocate for the technological modernization of our transportation 

system by focusing on advancing research and deployment of intelligent transportation systems. Its 

unique membership brings together all key stakeholders in the intelligent transportation movement 

-including established and emerging private companies, public agencies, state DOT officials as well as 

leaders in the academic and research communities. 

I. The Importance of Intelligent Transportation 

As put forward in our public policy roadmap' last month, ITS America seeks to revitalize our 

infrastructure and modernize our outmoded transportation system. Broadly, we seek to improve the safety 

and efticiency of our transportation networks and our nation's economy, standard of living, and health 

and security. Transportation connects communities and is the lifeblood of commerce. It widens job 

opportunities and is essential to addressing equity, poverty. unemployment. and access to education and 

health care. 35,092 people died on our roads in 20 15'-the highest fatality rate since the 1960's. We 

believe "intelligent transportation" can address the broadest spectrum of challenges and opportunities. 

Our objective is to grow our economy and improve our quality of life through innovative technologies 

that enhance the mobility, safety, security, privacy, sustainability and accessibility of our transportation 

system in the next decade. Safety, security and privacy in particular are critical and must be addressed by 

the technology sector along the entire technology lifecycle-in design, development, deployment, and 

operations. ITS America seeks to grow collaboration within industry and between private and public 

sectors in these critical areas. 

II. Reinvesting in our Communities Through Smart Technology 

We are increasingly becoming a more urban and technology centric world. In the United States, more 

than 85% of the nation's population live in cities and metropolitan areasJ The pm1ion of the world's 

population that lives in cities is projected to grow from 50% to nearly 70% by 2050. To adjust to this 
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ITS f\MERIC!\ 

rapid growth, we will need to identify new ways to assist communities in becoming "smarter" and more 

efficient. Access to jobs, education, healthcare, and public safety services are critical. Changing how we 

design, develop, and manage the nation's critical infrastructure components will be an essential element 

for any "Smart Community" of the future. Our public policy roadmap recommends: 

Communicating the Benefits and Facilitate Deployment of Smart Community Technologies: To 

increase support by elected officials and policymakers as well as the general public, show how intelligent 

transp011ation systems (ITS) can improve everyday life. Use the narrative to inspire and make the 

business and economic case for a safer, faster, more equitable, efficient. and sustainable transportation 

system. 

Encouraging Federal Funding Flexibility and New Funding Mechanisms: Advocate for flexible 

policies regarding Federal/State matching requirements (e.g., 100% Federal funding up front with a 

back-end match by Locals/State for continuing operations) and other implementation provisions in the 

FAST Act and any new infrastructure bill related to the deployment of smart technology for communities. 

Examine the potential usc of a tax overhaul to fund infrastructure investment plans. In any new 

infrastructure bill, examine requiring that a percentage of all infrastructure funding must be allocated for 

Smm1 community/tech-driven mobility. Emphasize performance goals. 

ldelltijj,ing Innovation Champions at the Local Level and Educate Them on the Tools for 

f.xperimentation: Encourage communities to allow Chief Technology Officers or other appropriate 

officials to use Other Transaction Authority, pilot programs, and similar programs to bypass onerous, 

time-consuming procurement procedures. Encourage the FHWA to enable better flexibility in the States 

by using performance level conditions measures instead of the traditional measures. Examine Federal 

restrictions on sole sourcing. Study means to add flexibility to communities (e.g. States, Cities, MPOs, 

etc.). 

Supporting Proposals that llltegrate Federal "Smart Communities" Programs am/ Provide Resources 

Where Appropriate: Support legislative efforts that would improve coordination of smart community 

programs across the Federal government. Provide State and Local governments with technical assistance 

and resources to help foster the deployment of smart community technologies. Support STEM education 

and training required for the development and operation of smart communities. Suppot1 the necessary 

R&D to enhance the functionality-including cybersecurity and privacy protections---of smart 

community technologies. 

III. Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) and Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) Communications Technologies Are 

Important Components of Smart Communities 

When developing smart communities, intelligent transportation systems (ITS) that transform mobility in 

those communities will be necessary. Our public policy roadmap recommends: 

Establishing the Foundation for the Deployment of Automated Vehicles: Build public confidence by 

achieving broad industry participation in the NHTSA Automated Vehicles Policy development process. 
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ITS Nv\ERICA 

Revise the guidance where it serves that purpose. Engage with States, safety regulators, and advocates to 

address their concerns about testing as well as to help them in establishing processes that would help the 

transition from testing to larger scale deployment. Advocate for changes or clarifications to Federal Motor 

V chicle Safety Standards or other authorities to support new technologies (e.g. for automated vehicle, 

advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), visibility, lighting, etc.). 

Establishing the Foundation for the Deployment of Vehicle-lo-X Safety and Mobility Communications: 

Advance a Federal standard for passenger vehicle V2V and push US DOT guidance on V21 to ensure 

smooth deployment of Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) hy addressing vehicle 

interoperability, security, and privacy. Advance same standards for trucks and buses. Establish paths for 

upgrading V2V and V2X standards when next generation wireless systems, such as SG, arc deployed in 

telecom networks over the long term, addressing same issues as above. 

Building Broadband Infrastructure and Secure Spectrum to Support Advanced Vehicle and 

Transportation Infrastructure Technologies: Include broadband networks in any infrastructure 

legislation, including broadband funding for rural or otherwise hard-to-serve areas. Support a 

technology-driven approach to spectrum sharing between Wi-fi and DSRC that allows Wi-Fi use in the 

5 GHz band, but in a way that preserves the safety and utility of DSRC without unduly burdening road 

users and transportation infrastructure operators. 

IV. Conclusion 

ITS America would like to thank the Subcommittee for holding this hearing and greatly appreciates the 

opportunity to submit written testimony. ITS America looks forward to working with you on smart 

communities and emerging intelligent transportation issues. for more information, please contact: Jason 

Goldman, VP of External Affairs & Stakeholder Engagement, at 202-721-4212 or via email at 

jgoldman@itsa.org; or Ron Thanicl, VP of Legislative Affairs, at 202-721-4226 or via email at 

rthanid@itsa.org. 

1 The Road Ahead· The Next Generation of Mobility, ITS America (rei. Feb. 8, 20 17), available at: 

http:// its america .org/wp-con tent/uploads/20 I 7 /02/F inal-l"hc-Road-Ahead-The-N ext-Generation-a f-Mobi I i 

ty-Roadmap-020717b.pdf. 

2 Trajjic(atalities up sharply in 2015, NHTSA (rei. Aug. 29, 2016), available at: 

https :/ iwww. n htsa. gov /press-releases/traffic-fatal i ties-sharplv-20 I 5. 3 U.S Merro Economies GMP and Employment Report: 2015-2017, The United States Conference of 

Mayors, 2016. 
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CompTIA® TEC 

March 15, 2017 

The Honorable Robert Latta 

Chairman 

House Energy & Commerce 

Subcommittee on Digital Commerce & 

Consumer Protection 

Washington, D.C. 20515 

The Honorable janice Schakowsky 

Ranking Member 

House Energy & Commerce 

Subcommittee on Digital Commerce & 

Consumer Protection 

Washington, D.C. 20515 

RE: Support for Smart Cities and Communities Act 

Dear Chairman Latta & Ranking Member Schaknowsky: 

This week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold the first ever 

hearing focusing on smart cities. During the hearing, Congressman Ben Ray Lujan 

(D-NM) will be introducing the Smart Cities and Communities Act, a bill that 

focuses on enhancing federal coordination and investment in smart city and 

community programs, providing assistance to communities through workforce 

training and technology demonstration programs, improving performance and 

interoperability, and international cooperation and best practices. 

A smart city uses information and communications technology (ICT) to enhance its 

livability, workability and sustainability. It collects information about itself using 

sensors, devices or other systems, and sends the data to an analytics system to 

understand what's happening now and what's likely to happen next. 

Most cities greater than 750,000 in population have at least one- and usually 

multiple- smart city projects underway in one sector or another. But few cities 

have a comprehensive, long-term, integrated plan. In fact, there are only a handful of 

cities worldwide that are well on their way to a full adoption of smart cities 

technology in an integrated way across all sectors. And many of the real-world 

smart city examples are typically much larger or smaller than how we traditionally 

define cities. They're either occurring on a more regional basis or as small 

neighborhood-by-neighborhood projects. 

There is vast potential to provide smart city benefits to a larger number of citizens 

and those benefits are immense. 

America has the opportunity to capitalize on the use of smart technologies to help 

drive innovation, stimulate the economy, grow jobs and bolster the country's 

position as a global technology leader. Whether it is the utilization of highperformance computing, a cloud-first philosophy or the use of cutting-edge data 

analytics, we are poised to create technological marvels that will be the envy of the 

world. The "best and brightest" will come to work for our cities, unlocking 

innovation in the tech petri dishes that will be our smart cities. 
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CompTIA® TEC 

T£C>1N0l0DY COUNC!Ui Or NQ-RT•< AMERICA 

We the undersigned support the Act and urge Congress to move forward on this 

important piece of legislation. We feel strongly that Act will help accelerate job 

growth and innovation within our communities. 

Elizabeth Hyman 

Executive Vice President 

CompTIA 

Skip Newberry 

Chairman, Technology Councils of North America 

CEO, Technology Association of Oregon 

Arizona 

Arizona Technology Council (AZTC) 

California 

California Technology Council (CTC) 

CONNECT 

OCTANe 

Tech San Diego 

Colorado 

Colorado Technology Association (CTA) 

Connecticut 

Connecticut Technology Council (CTC) 

Georgia 

Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) 

Idaho 

Idaho Tech Council (lTC) 

Illinois 

lllinois Technology Association (ITA) 

Iowa 

Technology Association of Iowa (T AI) 

Kentucky 
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CompTIA® 

Technology Association of Louisville Kentucky (TALK) 

Missouri 

KC Tech Council 

Massachusetts 

Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council (MassTLC) 

Maryland 

Maryland Tech Council (MTC) 

Minnesota 

Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA) 

New Hampshire 

New Hampshire High Tech Council (NHHTC) 

New Jersey 

New jersey Tech Council (NJTC) 

New York 

New York Tech Alliance 

New Mexico 

New Mexico Technology Council (NMTC) 

North Carolina 

North Carolina Technology Association (NCTA) 

Ohio 

OHTech 

Oregon 

Technology Association of Oregon (TAO) 

Pennsylvania 

Pittsburgh Technology Council 

Tennessee 

Nashville Technology Council 

Texas 

Austin Technology Council (J\TC) 

Tech Titans 

Utah 

Utah Technology Council 

Washington 

Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) 

Wisconsin 

Wisconsin Technology Council (WTC) 

TEC 
95 


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0ITI 

The Global Voice of the Tech Sec:or 

U.S. House of Representatives 

Committee on Energy and Commerce 

Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection 

"Disrupter Series: Smart Communities" Hearing 

March 16, 2017 

Statement for the Record 

On behalf of the undersigned companies and associations representing the technology sector, 

we appreciate and welcome the Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection's 

consideration of policy measures that improve and enhance the deployment of "smart" 

technology at the local level. 

We believe that strong smart technology policy begins with the inclusion of all stakeholders, 

both public and private, and aims to improve livability, workability, and sustainability across a 

broad range of communities, including the most vulnerable. As mentioned in the 

subcommittee's hearing memo, the technology sector has a history of collaborating with 

government, academia, and other key stakeholders to innovate and deploy smart technology in 

communities across the country. 1 

We strongly support investment in the infrastructure that supports the deployment of next 

generation technologies, namely the internet infrastructure. With 50 billion devices to be 

connected to the internet by 2020, robust and cutting-edge broadband networks like SG will be 

essential to realizing the full potential of smart technology use cases across the transportation, 

consumer, government and industrial sectors. Ubiquitous, affordable, high-speed broadband 

connections are critical to enabling the countless smart city benefits and services. Such 

1 Disrupter Series: Smart Communities Hearing Memo. 14 March 2017. 

1 
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infrastructure investments have "triple bottom line" returns, providing social, financial and 

environmental benefits. 

For example, a recent report by the Smart Cities Council estimates that 12,000 job-years of 

employment are created for every $1 billion investment in wireless infrastructure2 The 

sustainability benefits from technology innovations in intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and 

information and communications technology (ICT) is another example, as these solutions offer 

ways to make our transportation systems more efficient and less costly. 

We're encouraged by the existing federal policy that promotes and support efforts by cities and 

municipalities to improve quality of life for their citizens, like the Department ofTransportation's 

(DOT) Smart Cities Challenge and the National Institute of Standards and Technology ( NIST) 

Global City Teams Challenge. As the subcommittee examines the role of the federal government 

in supporting smart technology deployment, we support the proposals outlined in the draft 

Smart Communities Bill. The bill outlines critical priorities, including (1) enhanced federal 

coordination and investment in smart city and community programs, (2) community assistance, 

(3) improved performance and interoperability, and (4) promotion of international cooperation 

and proliferating best practices. 

As outlined in the bill, coordination of activities among federal agencies working in smart 

communities application areas is an important next step. The National Science Technology 

Council highlighted this importance of bridging existing divisions and silos (see Figure One) in 

their 2017 Smart Cities and Communities Federal Strategic Plan. 3 To address this coordination 

challenge, the bill directs the Secretary of Commerce, in coordination with the Secretaries of 

Energy, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development and the Director of the National 

Science Foundation (the Secretaries), and other agencies, to develop a strategy for coordinating 

federal smart communities activities and to promote private sector partnerships and 

international cooperation. 

2 Smart Cities Council. Smart Infrastructure Unlocks Eguit~ and Prosperity for Our Cities and Towns. September 

2016. 

3 National Science and Technology Council. Smart Cities and Communities Federal Strategic Plan: Exploring 

Innovation Together. https://www.nitrd.gov/drafts/SCC Strajg_gj'fjan Draftodf 

2 
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FIGURE l· SMART CITY APPLICATION AREAS (NATIONAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL) 

Another priority Smart Communities that should be considered by is 

the importance of improved performance and interoperability, which is encouraged in the bill. 

Systems of intelligent must be to the network and to each other to 

the potential of smart communities. To enable broad, scalable adoption of smart communities 

technologies, and avoid proprietary or attention must be placed on (1) 

the use of industry-led standards developed by globally relevant standards-setting organizations, 

and (2) ease of connectivity and interoperability of devices, platforms, software and 

infrastructure. The bill encouroges federal government participation in industry-led smart cities 

standards development and interoperability. 

A certain level of standardization will be necessary to drive a successful, nationwide smart 

community security ecosystem-· e.g., to that multiple applications within communities 

can securely communicate with each other and municipal infrastructure. Industry is in the best 

position develop the technological standards and solutions to address the security challenges 

facing smart communities. The private sector should lead the development of open and 

voluntary standards that enable and with the public sector encourage 

the of standards and best practices. federal gover·nment should encourage 

industry/laboratory research and acceptance, but policymakers should from 

mandating specific or standards. 

With to cybersecurity and privacy in technology deployment, we strongly 

encourage integrating privacy and security from the outset, as is done by the companies we 

represent drive smart communities' adoption, applications must evoke trust through 

hardened privacy and security solutions, looking to widely accepted best practices as well as 

novel Most importantly, privacy and designed into smart 

communities systems at the outset using best-known Privacy-by-Design and privacy engineering 

3 
98 


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methods, as well as secure development practices, which contemplate the varying objectives 

and risks for different smart communities' solutions. 

Finally, we support the promotion of international cooperation and proliferating best practices. 

Whereas 54 percent of the world's population now lives in cities, it is estimated that 70 percent 

of the world's population will live in cities by 2050. The global smart cities market is projected to 

reach $408 billion by 2020 and U.S. GDP is projected to increase 25-40% due to cyber-physical 

systems by 2030. The continued cooperation and partnership between the United States and 

countries around the world with regards to smart U.S. technologies holds the potential to 

increase U.S. exports and increase job growth in the United States. Furthermore, continued 

international promotion of U.S. smart technologies in countries around the world holds the 

potential to advance shared interests, including the adoption of energy and resource saving 

technologies that can secure the availability of water, food and energy, and improve public 

health, disease prevention, and pandemic response. 

We thank the subcommittee for holding this hearing and allowing us to submit written 

testimony. We look forward to working with you to coordinate federal efforts on smart 

communities, and provide federal tools and resources to assist communities across this country 

as they look to deploy these JOb-creating and cost saving technologies. 

4 
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Wireless Connectivity Fuels Industry Growth and Innovation 

Contents 

Executive Summary 3 

Industry Perspectives 5 

Energy 5 

Health 7 

Public Safety 9 

Transportation 11 

Case Study 13 

Conclusions 14 

Sources 15 
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Wireless Connectivity Fuels Industry Growth and Innovation 

Executive Summary 

Wireless connectivity has transformed our world so rapidly that it is sometimes difficult to appreciate how fundamentally it is changing American 

industry. By fueling economic growth and innovation, these advances y1eld benefits with far*reaching impacts beyond just the 

telecommunications sector. Increasingly, industries across our economy are leveraging the wireless platform, charting new paths, becoming 

more eff1cient, and creating the potential for extensive economic development and job growth. 

Today, 4G w1reless technologies and connected devices provide a glimpse into the impact that 5G, the next~generation of wireless connectivity, 

could have across industry sectors and our economy. This paper explores four major industries, highlighting case studies that demonstrate how 

Wireless connecttvity has enabled these industries to grow and evolve. The picture that emerges illustrates the potential of tomorrow's wireless 

world: 

Energy: As estimated by the Electnc Power Research Institute, smart grid adoption enabled by wireless connectivity could create $1,8 

trillion in additive revenue to the U_S, economy and could save the average consumer hundreds of dollars per year. 1 

Health: Goldman Sachs estimates that connected devices could create $305 bilt1on in annual health system savings from decreased 

costs and mortality due to chrome i!lnesses. 2 

Public Safety: Improvements enabled by wireless connectivity have the ability to save lives- a one-minute improvement in response 

time translates to a reduction of 8% in mortality, as estimated in a study in the Journal of Health Economics- and to reduce crime and 

the cost of law enforcernenP 

Transportation: Deloitte estimates that self-driving cars enabled by wireless connectivity could reduce emissions by 40-90%, travel 

times by nearly 40"/c and delays by 20%.4 A 2013 study by the Eno Center for Transportation estimated that self-driving cars could 

save 21,700 lives and $447 bt!llon per year.~ 

To some extent, the current stage of growth is propelled by improvements in efficiency and other rapid gains. Information that was previously 

d1ff1cult or impossible to acquire is now easily accessible, enabling businesses to better analyze the performance of assets, and more quickly 

identify opportunities to improve operations 

The next stage of growth will come not just from continued efficiency gains, but also from reductions of failure rates, increased productivity. and 

new functional capabilities. A fundamental catalyst of this innovation cycle will be the network effects of ubiquitous wireless connectiVIty brought 

about primarily by the advancements in wireless technology. Some of these effects are difficult to predict, but their trajectories can be 

characterized through the use of case examples described in this paper 

Indeed, this next stage of growth will be driven by 5G wireless networks. SG is expected to provide speeds that are 10x faster than 4G. and with 

lower latency, which generates S1gnif1cant benefits. particularly in the health industry. SG will enable the use of numerous devices on the 

network at once while providing carrier-grade security.8 5G will further unlock developments and growth in each of these four industry verticals. 

Furthermore, quality of life, economic well-being, safety, and welfare of communities across the country are Increasingly tied to wireless 

technologies. So-called "smart cities" are leveraging faster mobile broadband networks- and the technologies, applications, products, and 

services they make possible- to more efficiently allocate limited government resources, improve services, and build stronger communities 

lt is dear that the communities and industries that offer the most farseeing and flexible platforms and regulatory processes will be the ones that 

benefit the most from innovation and economic growth. Further. those commumties that proactively engage and partner w1th business will likely 

be part of shaping th1s future, helpmg ensure they also realize the benef1ts. 
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Wireless Connectivity Fuels Industry Grov>'l:h and Innovation 

Introduction 

The following perspectives on the specific industry verticals- energy, health, pubHc safety, and transportation- highlight some of the benefits 

that have been realized as the result of increased connectivity, speed, improved capacity, and enhanced coverage of wireless networks. These 

benefits can be categorized in four ways, which are defined below in the context of the industries and use cases studied. 

Better efficiency The increased utilization of assets or time in a business organization. 

Reduction of failures: Decreases in 1) the error or failure rate in processes and varlabmty, 2) the asset replacement rate, and 3) the 

costs of downtime as a result of preventative maintenance, 

Improved performance: Leveraging a business or organization's existing assets in ways !hat ensure new benefits, revenue, or market 

opportunities. 

New fi.mc!ionality: Creation of new devices, assets, or services that may result in 1) expanding customer bases, 2) addressing new 

markets, and 3) offering new products or services, 

Source: Deloitte analysis 
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Wireless Connectivity Fuels Industry Growth and Innovation 

Energy 

Wireless connectivity strengthens energy companies' ability to power our nation's homes, businesses, and 

communities. According to the Electric Power Research Institute, smart grid adoption, which is enabled by 

wireless connectivity, could create $1.8 trillion in additive revenue to the U.S. economy, saving the average 

consumer hundreds of dollars per yearT 

Improving the efficiency, rellabiHty, and security of the nation's power 

delivery grid impacts nearly every aspect of the U.S. 

e!ectrlc grid covers the entire country and is comprised of the 

generation of electricity by power plants and other sources, tt1e 

transmission of e!ectriclty, and the distribution of electricity to homes. 

Wire!ess connectivity is reshaping the energy landscape with greater 

access to real~tlme information. Connectivity helps augment the 

energy Industry's critical role ln the economy, electricity uUUties tn 

particular, despite ongoing challenges created by aging infrastructure 

and sheer cornp!ex1ty.8 Specifically, wireless connectivity fuels the 

economy as shown through the foHowlng case examples of the 

actlvWes undertaken across the country: 

Benefits Consumers, Businesses, and Communlt!es: The benefits to 

electric utHit!es stem from the increased asset efficiency and reduced 

costs, which directly translate into greater reliability and lower costs for 

consumers and businesses, and opportunities for investment in new 

capabilities and technologies, such as renewab1e energy sources. 

This impact of wireless connectivity can be felt across the economyas estimated by Electric Power Research lnstltute (EPRl), a more 

effident and reHab!e energy grld enabled by a smart grid could create 

$1.8 trillion ln additive revenue for the U.S. economy from 2013~2020.9 

Balances Energy Supply and Demand: Balancing power supply and 

demand is a critical role for electric utlhties, as any miscalculation can 

cause safety and reHabl!lty concerns by oversupplying power to the 

system. Electricity supply and demand are largely independent, with 

utilities serving as the matching functlon to reach a near perfect 

equihbrium and enst.Jre stabillty and reliability for the entlre grld. Many 

causes of variabl!ity are unpredictable. For instance, weather is 

estimated to cause 80% of outages and 90% of e!ectriclty~related 

varlab!lity.w 

Furthermore, the addition of renewable energy poses another 

challenge, as the energy added is often variable due to the avai!ablHty 

of solar orwlnd inputs to generate energy, independent of the 

consumption or demand of energy. On the supply side, generation 

estimated to be the part of the value chain with the largest source of 

losses in the system, with transmission as the second most slgniflcant 

source, which means improving the capabnity of the system could 

reduce power generation needs, costs, and avoidable losses in the 

system.11 

Moving from a predictive system to a rea!~time reporting system that 

leverages wireless solutions enables electric utilities to better serve a 

matching function. For example, in 2011, an earthquake in the 

Washington, DC metropolitan area tripped sensors connected 

wire!essly to the grid at two nuclear plants in Virgln!a, shutting down 

the supply from these plants for 12 seconds. The U.S. Energy 

Information Administration reported that the other plants on the grid 

detected the decrease created ln those 12 seconds and automatically 

generated additional output making up the difference !o prevent 

servlce disnJpt!ons, 1

2 

A smart glid represents the widespread adoption of communications 

technology in the energy sector and refers to the technology that 

belng used to provide computer-based remote control and automation, 

utiHzing two-way communication technologies and sensors to gather 

and relay relevant data. 

Improves Grid Maintenance and Monitoring: EPRI estimated that the 

cost of power disturbances due to outages is between £104 bl!Hon and 

$164 billion per year. t4 Outages also cause major disruptions to 

residential customers and industrial users. Many industrial users are 

sensitive to any type of outage, which can cause operations to be 

disrupted and -creates the possibHliy of having to scrap mll!lons of 

dollars of materia! ln the process. Wire!essly connected sensors allow 

uWities to monitor the maintenance and status of all of the lines withln 

the system. This rea!-time monitorlng a!tows electric utltit!es to 

accurately deploy technicians to fix and replace equipment due to 

storm or accidental damage, and provides the basis for optlmlzing the 

workforce and capita! lnvestments to improve the integrity of the 

overall system. With wirelessly connected sensors, electric utilities can 

fix and replace equipment before a critical failure, which potentla!ly 

translates to further savings of millions of doHars per year. 

For example, a report by U.S, Department of Energy (DOE) 

highfighted the Sacramento Municipal Utility Distrld's {SMUD) 

Implementation of the SmartSacramento project, which Involved large~ 

scale deployment of an advanced metering system integrated with 

existing information technology systems, such as proprietary-based, 

wireline, and wireless communications technologies. The project 

utHized a partlaf deployment of advanced power distribution systems 

to enable automated grid control and operations. SMUO estimates 

that th!s project has reduced outage events by 37% in customer¥ 

minutes interrupted from 2009 to 2013, 1s 
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Protects Workers: Efficiencies can also be obtained across other key 

components of the grid, including generation and distribution, in 

addition to reducing energy loss. Many complexities and issues in the 

energy sector can be alleviated using sensor technology to send 

information about the status of infrastructure and electricity flows. 

Nuclear power plants are leveraging next generation wireless 

connectivity to strengthen on+site communication to monitor 

equipment, provide redundancies, and address safety concerns. A 

nuclear facility m South Korea was able to reduce worker radiation 

doses by 37% through wirelessly enabled radiation sensors and a 

centralized monitoring system. 16 Simi!arly, electric utilities are 

changing how they operate and are moving towards smart automation 

to improve overall system response time using wireless connectivity. 

Reduces Investment Costs: Ubiquitous access to wireless networks 

allows sensor technology to inexpensively transmit information back to 

utilities or users on a timely basis. In 2015. a major 

telecommunications carrier launched a platform for utihties, which 

uses 4G L TE technology and provides a dedicated wireless backhaul 

for advanced Metering Infrastructure. In more than 60% of electric 

outages, utility companies became aware of the outages from 

customer notifications, according to industry estimates and stated in 

the press release announcing the new platformY While most utilities 

use cellular technologies for aspects of their grid communications, this 

platfonn is an example that brings the solution to each smart meter 

and allows more utilities to undertake smart meters without requiring 

additional significant communications network investments. 

Wireless Connect1vily Fuels Industry Growth and Innovation 

smart meters reliant on a wireless connection were installed in 

approximately 43% of American homes.1a More recently, these smart 

meters have been harnessed to provide information about usage to 

the consumers to directly influence choices to reduce use and cost. 

This information is accessed through online customer accounts. Some 

utmties have started to offer in-home meters that convert from kWh to 

dollars per hour, using the current dynamic price based on aggregate 

demand_ 

For example, a DOE report discussed Florida Power & Light's (FPL) 

project aimed at decreasing losses and demand, using a large-scale 

deployment of advanced smart meters. distribution automation, an 

electricity pricing pilot. and advanced monitoring equipment for the 

utility's transmission system. Advanced metering infrastructure, 

enabled by cellular technologies, supports a standardized two-way 

communication hnk between smart meters, access points on the grid, 

and distribution automation systems. Over three million of FPL's 

customers have received smart meters as a part of the project. FPL 

has achieved 98% of its transmission improvement goats and 50% of 

its distribution improvement goats, saving some customers $1,200 per 

household annually in 2012.1£1 

Enables Consumer Education: Utilities are also harnessing smart 

meters to better educate and inform consumers- empowering them to 

reduce their energy bills. A Washington Post article reported that 

Oklahoma Gas & Electric (OG&E) installed more than 820.000 smart 

meters in lts service areas through a voluntary enrollment program. 

Utilities use a combination of ce!!utar and mesh wireless networks, but 

Boosts Generation and Distribution: Bringing electricity into homes the backhau! system typically uses the cellular system infrastructure. 

and busmesses is equally complex, requiring a network of substations, The program communicated consumption and provided a direct way 

system redundancies, and !ower voltage distribution lines. Smart to monitor energy usage and costs, helping OG&E customers in the 

meters provide information for the utilities to dynamically adjust to program save, on average, $191 per year on their electricity bil!s.zo 

peaks and demand changes. As of early 2016, more than 50 million 
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Wireless Connectivity Fuels Industry Growth and Innovation 

Health 

Wireless connectivity provides for innovations in telemedicine, patient monitoring, and data collection in the 

health care industry, partially saving the system $305 billion annually from decreased costs and mortality rates 

from chronic illnesses, according to a Goldman Sachs estimate. 21 

Health care expenditures in the United States rose to $3,2 trHHon in 

2015, or approximately 18% of the GOP.n.Hea!th care costs are 

rising, driven by many factors, lnr.luding the aging population, 

severity of il!nesses, the inefficiencies and complexities of the 

system, and lack of transparency or available data. The United 

States spends nearly twice as much per capita as any other 

developed nation on health care, but has lower Hfe expectancy and 

higher leve!s of chronic diseases. n 

Wireless connectivity enables remote access and te1emedlc1ne, whl!e 

providing improved care and health outcomes. This increased access 

reduces unnecessary costs and ensures that time and distance are 

not barriers to early interventions and preventative care. Goldman 

Sachs estimates that the total annual savings opportunity for the 

health system that w!l! be achieved through digital health adoption is 

$305 bl!lion, with two-thirds from chronic disease management and 

remote patient monitoring. 24 

Consumers are increasingly attracted to these telehealth and smart 

monitoring trends, as they empower them to make better choices and 

access better care. Oeloitte's 2016 Survey of U.S. Health Care 

Consumers shows that nearly 70% of hea!thcare users are interested 

ln some form of connected hea!thcare services, 50% of health care 

users responded positively to the idea of telehea!th,2;, and an 

American Hospital Association's report on te!ehea!th indicates that 

74% of U.S. citizens would use te!ehealth services 

70% of U.S. dtlzens would be comfortable communicating 

their health needs over a device 

30% of U.S. cttizens use computers or smartphones for 

medical or diagnostic inforrnation2~ 

Expands Reach of H$a!th care: Telemedlcine requires that both the 

physician and the patient have a secure, low~latency connect!ort 

With ubiquitous ce!lutar cover'dge, this connection can be realized in 

rural areas, enabling greater access 1n all areas of the country, 

Te!emedlcine is being embraced by hospitals around the country; the 

American Hasp-Ita! Association's annual survey shD'Ned that 52% of 

hospitals in the United States used some form of telehea!th in 2013.2? 

Telemedic!ne ls only one part of the picture, as patient monitoring 

has continued to evolve and grow exponentially. For instance, a 

Healthcare fnformatlon and Management Systems Society (H!MSS) 

study reported that !eadlng medlcal professionals from the University 

of Ca!lforn!a Davis Health System implemented program that 

utilizes cHnica! te!ehea1th and telemediclne. As of 2016, the program 

reduced rural to urban transfers by an estimated 31%, saving rural 

emergency departments an average of $4,662 per hospita1ization.2s 

The increased access to specia1lsts and more experienced 

professionals from remote locations reduces the need for transferring 

and improves the quality of care offered closest to the patient. 

HlMSS pubHshed a case study on Dignity Health ln San Francisco, 

an integrated health care organization, whlch uWizes a te!emediclne 

network that enables physicians to connect with patients at remote 

care sites through a secure internet connection. The system allows 

the organization to have a larger customer base beyond San 

Francisco, and centralized located scheduHng services allow for 

quicker response times and help more patlents.29 

Reduces Mortality Rates: In the United States, chronic heart failure 

Impacts nearly 6 mil!lon people per year. Telehea!th programs have 

created an estimated 20% decrease in mortality and a 50% reduction 

in medica! costs associated with chronic heart failure. 31 A Brookings 

report highlighted a program implemented in Massachusetts, the 

Connected Cardiac Care Program, whlch uses a combination of 

remote monitoring, social media, and data management app!lcations 

to provide telehealth services, lncluding centraHzed telemonltorlng, 

self~management, and nurse intervention. The program has resulted 

In a 51% reduction in heart failure readmissions and 44% reduction 

in non~heart fai!un~ readmissions, leadlng to cost savings of $8,155 

per patient. The accrued savings in the six years since its raunch is 

over S10 million.3z 

Helps Manage Chronic Diseases: The Centers for Disease ControJ 

estimate that the incidence of diabetes increased fourfold from 1980 

to 2014 and now affects approximately 29 miiHon Americans, with 86 

miHion diagnosed with prediabetes. 3S The disease is a significant 

contributor to rising health costs in the United States. Companies are 

addressing this trend; in 2015, a major medical device manufacturer 
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launched a smartphone app for pat1ents using its continuous glucose 

monitor to receive alerts. Results are uploaded every five minutes to 

the smartphone app, allow1ng patients greater control over diabetic 

episodes.35 

Advances Medical Research: The wearables and remote patient 

monitoring market is expected to reach $612 bi!tion by 2024 with 

expected sales from providers of $50 billion and consumers of $200 

bill!on. 36 The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has created a 

precision medicine initiative- involving detailed personal medical 

irlformation retrieved from wearables and implants -that will enable 

research for a wide range of diseases to detect correlations between 

genetic environmental exposures and outcomes. 3r 

Specific conditions and illnesses are being addressed through the 

use of wearables. As reported in a NIH study, the Michael J. Fox 

Foundation is pioneering work on devices that track the tremors 

associated with Parkinson's disease. 38 Wearable motion sensors 

provide reliable data in real time that help doctors determine whether 

patients are deteriorating and diagnose the root causes of 

symptoms.3s 

Creates Operational Efficiencies for Hospitals: Hospitals are 

increasingly using wireless connectivity to provide operational 

efficiencies. Studies find that more information was documented 

when a mobile device was used and more diagnoses are captured. 3'> 

In 2015. Mercy Hospital 1n St. Louis announced that it opened the 

Wireless Connectivity Fuels Industry Growth and Innovation 

world's first Virtual Care Center, which houses 330 employees and 

existing tetemedicine efforts, such as SafeWatch. The Virtual Care 

Center connects medical personnel with patients where they live, at 

one of Mercy's traditional hospitals, or at another physician's office. 40 

Sparks New Possibilities: With more reliable and faster real-time 

access, next generation wireless connectivity enables innovations in 

imagmg, diagnostics, data analytics, and treatment. This is made 

possible through the use of devices, such as clinical wearables and 

remote sensors, as well as many others that monitor and 

electronicaHy transmit medical data, such as vita! signs, physical 

activl!y, personal safety, and medication adherence. For patients 

suffering from serious or chrome health issues such as 

cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or cancer, remote monitoring 

devices can track vita! signs and glucose levels and electronically 

transmit this information to health care providers. For healthy patients 

seek1ng information and willing to pay out-of-pocket for devices 

today, wearab!es and momtoring technology can provide much 

needed information to help stay healthy. 

Wireless connectivity's role as a catalyst in the health industry is 

dear in reducing costs across the system, providing incentives to 

patients to obtain care sooner, empowenng patient choice, and 

providing for new functionality from medtech to hospital integration to 

patient services. 
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Wireless Connectivity Fuels Industry Growth and Innovation 

Public Safety 

Wireless connectivity enables public safety personnel and departments to better protect and serve 

communities. A Journal of Health Economics study on the Salt Lake City EMS services found that a oneminute improvement in response time translates to a reduction of 8% in mortality, which means efforts to better 

coordinate responses or automatic deployment could save lives." Wireless connectivity can also reduce crime 

and the cost of law enforcement, as shown through trial deployments of predictive policing programs across 

the country. 

From predictive policing that he!ps reduce crime to providing real~ 

time alerts giving first responders a more comprehensive 

understanding of unfolding emergencies, the technological gains of 

next generation wireless technologies are critical to help1ng citizens 

and communities enjoy enhanced public safety, 

Wireless technology is enab!Jng police departments to protect more 

neighborhoods with fewer personnel, improving patrolling technlqoos, 

and enhancing community engagement Enhanced connectivity 

capabilities, enables public safety to rely on proactive poHdng 

techniques and deterrents. Advancements ln wireless connectivity 

have the potential to demonstrably improve public safety by 

empowering public safety services - emergency responders, law 

enforcement, and public health - to carry out their missions more 

safely and effectively_ 

Advancements ln pub!lc safety technology have largely focused on 

addressing declining government budgets and shifts ln local tax 

bases, which have placed additional pressure on communities to do 

more with less. 

Addresses Budgetary Pressures: Scheduling and dep!oying 

resources to provide public safety coverage amid budget pressures 

presents addtt!onal problems for many communities. For example, 

article high!ighted that since 2006, the Denver PoHce Department has 

received a nlne percent increase ln emergency calls - responding to 

more than 500,000 calls 1n 2015. Compounded with budget cuts and 

fewer police officers, the Denver Police Department reported that it 

had postponed purchasing any new police cars.4~ But Denver's 

advanced wlretess camera system, the High Activity Location 

Observation (HALO), was p!aced at key locations to extend the reach 

of the police force. HALO paid for itself in 18 months and allowed for 

more efficient investigations and capabilities, lncluding the 

ldentificai:lon of license plates 1.5 blocks away. 43 Next generation 

communlcatlons technologies enable po!tce departments to more 

efficlent!y cover the entire city, 

Reduces Crime and lmproves Officer Safety: The future of policing 

will take a stronger preventative approach, allowing police to do more 

with fewer resources and relying directly on data and algorithms to 

gulde the deployment of resources. A predictive policing pi1ot 

program depfoyed by the Los Angeles Pollee Department (LAPD) 

builds on efforts tn the last decade to focus on common crime 

hotspots by dynamica!ly predicting new 

The Clty of Atlanta launched a predictive policing ana!yt!cs program, 

whlch allows police departments to layer data onto the existing 

wireless camera system feeds to predict when and where crimes 

may occur, enab!lng police officers to anticipate problems, 

preemptively deploy, and prevent future crimes. PredPo! estimated 

that the results of the p1lot program -deployed ln two zones in July 

2013- showed aggregate crime decreases of 8% to 9%. The Atlanta 

Police Department has seen aggregate crime rates drop by 19%, 

attributing a significant portion of the sustained reduction to the 

deployment of this program.4B 

Improves Dec1sion~Maklng: The Internet of Things {loT), a key trend 

in next generation wireless technology, wtll enable and empower 

emergency respond{lrs to be more responsive and effective. For 

example, emergency response vehicles can now be connected to the 

fnternet wlfelessly with enough bandwidth to support higfHeso!ution 

display monitors and to receive muHlple inputs simultaneously. Wfth 

this improved capabmty, emergency responders can develop f~J!Jer 

plctures of situations and provide better intelligence to decision 

makers. Connected sensors within disaster areas can w!re!essly 

relay reaHlme information to ensure emergency managers make 

decisions based on the most recent, comprehenslve information. A 

Journal of Health Economics study on the Salt Lake City EMS 
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system reported that a one-minute improvement ln an emergency 

response translates to an eight percent improvement in mortality one 

day after the initial incJdent.47 

The real-time tracking of emergency responders using loT enables 

supervisors to make quicker and better decisions. Uses of loT 

include: 

Trackmg radio frequency identification {RFID) tags on 

equipment and GPS location of people and automobl!es 

Controlling drones and other video survei!!ance remotely 

Monitoring integrated real-time weather data and personnel 

ons1te managing the situation on high bandwidth 

connections 

Creates Operational Efficiencies: Public safety professionals can 

capitalize on operat1ona! efficiencies that allow them to better perform 

their mission and save money. As reported, the Florida Department 

of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles {DHSMV) partnered with an 

equipment manufacturer to install dedicated network antennae for 

video upload, allowing videos captured in pollee cars to be collected 

and used in crim1na! trials and proceedings. The new antennas 

reduced upload t1mes from 3 hours to 20 minutes, wh1ch was 

estimated by the manufacturer to save the department $1.1 million in 

annual overtlme.4a 

Wireless Connectivity Fuels Industry Growth and Innovation 

Integrates Public Health and Safety: Connected devices, reliable 

connectivity, and the resulting advanced analytics can empower 

emergency responders as we!! as public health officials to respond 

preventatively. For example, the City of Chicago announced that it 

had partnered with the Argonne National Laboratory and the 

University of Chicago to launch a dty-wide pilot called the "Array of 

Things'' (AoT) in 2016.49 This initiative cons1sts of 500 lamppostmounted sensors, enabled by a major telecommunications carrier's 

network, which monitor air quality and other conditions to: 

Identify potential pest infestations 

Track variables increasing the incidence of asthma attacks 

Detect urban floodmg to prevent damage and improve city 

services 

Provide real-time weather and climate updates 

Recommend the safest and least congested walking routes, 

depending on the time of day 

Obtain details about factors cntical to the health of the city's 

environment and infrastructure 

Once the sensor·based nodes collect the information, the data is 

transmitted over a secure wireless network to a central database 

server at the Argonne National Laboratory and then made available 

to the public.s0 Ultimate!y, the goal of AoT is to provide real-time, 

location-based data to detect changes and trends over t1me to 

1mprove the quality of life 

10 
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Wireless Connectivity Fuels Industry Growth and Innovation 

Transportation 

Deloitte estimates that self-driving cars, enabled by wireless connectivity, could reduce emissions by 40% to 

90%, travel times by nearly 40%, and delays by 20%. 51 A study estimates that self-driving cars could save 

21,700 lives and $447 billion per year.52 

Wlretess conn-ectlvlty improves the speed at which people and goods 

move along the road safely. An Integrated transportation ecosystem 

is being accelerated by enhanced connectivity, a trend that is 

expected to continue and wJJJ push innovation in the transportation 

ecosystem. Benefits can be seen across the entlre transportation 

ecosystem and modaHties - from pubHc transportation to trucking to 

individual drivers arJd riders. Next generation wireless technology is 

building a platform for widespread adoption of smart roads and 

infrastructure, white simultaneously reca11bratlng the transportation 

value chain, from manufacturers to end users. 

While autonomous cars do not require wireless connectivity, being 

able to communicate to vehicles beyond a short~wave radio range 

wm Jmprove the overaU transportation experience. 

Reduces Congestion, Travel Tlme, and Delays: Next generation 

wireless technology has the potential to further improve these 

outcomes !n the transportation sector by enabling the shift into self~ 

driving cars and vehlc!e-to-\nfrastructure communication. Ubiquitous 

connections, made possible by ce!lular technologies, wl!l enable 

software updates to occur automatically and access to networks 

even in remote locations. 

Ford estimates that self-driving vehicles, 0110 of the key innovations 

generated by next generation wireless technology, can save 37.5% 

in travel times and reduce delays by 20% for end~customers. 53 

The Atlantic Magazine estimated that the average American 

commuter spends 38 hours per year in traffic, conectlve!y causing 

urban Americans to travel 5.5 bll!ion more hours and purchase an 

extra 2.S b1!!1of1 gallons of fuel at a cost to the U.S. economy of $121 

bH1Jon per year.55 According to the U.S. Department of Transportation 

(DOT), rural households drive more than urban or suburban 

households and utilize deEvery services to access goods that are 

often not availabte locally, su 

Enables System-Wide Improvements: Greater wireless connectivl\y 

pushes transportation services to work more efficfent!y and a!1ows 

commuters to make their work!ng and persona! lives more 

productive, The first major benefit to commuters has been in 

improved efficiency. !n the past decade, drivers and riders have been 

able to access new funct1ona!ities and services through their 

smartphones, examples including: 

ReaH1me mapping of traffic and road hazards 

Parking reservation services in ramps and on straets 

Urban bike sharing programs 

Ride sharing services 

One-way and day-long car sharing 

Accurate arrival times of public transportation 

Improves Road Safety: As wireless communications technologies 

evolve, the transportation ecosystem wm benefit by Improvements in 

road safety and traffic efficiency. Augmented and vJrtuai reallty 

app!lcatlons leveraging on-board sensors from other vehicles can fiH 

blind spots and equip commuters wlth "see through'" capabilities, 

Reliable ldentlflcatlon and locaHzation of vulnerable road users 

(VRUs) through satellite-based analytics can enhance the decision~ 

making and safety of dnvers. Data streams from connected road 

infrastructure Hke cameras and sensors can be utmzed by on~board 

applications and algorithms to better plan routes. 

Enhances Commercia! Trucking: The commercia[ trucking industry 

a!so stands to benefit from enhanced wireless connectivity 

capabl!ltles, For instance, Scania, a Swedish truck and equipment 

manufacturer, has partnered with the research and development 

department of a tetecommun1catlons equlprmmt manufacturer to 

enhance wireless technology for use in the trucking industry, Scania 

has designed and developed wireless!y connected trucks that use 

on*board computers to send information to fleet management 

systems and workshops. This new era of wireless connectivity will 

enable trucks to be driven in convoys close to one another to 

improve the now of traffic, real~tlme updates provided to the drivers 

about road blocks, obstacles, weather conditions, and ather safety 

hazards, system~ov€Hlides to take over steering and breaklng 

functions, and reduction of alr drag leading to lower fuel consumption 

and exhaust emissions. The new 5G networks will only increase the 

opportunities avaHab!e for this type of technology, as more 

capabilities are introduced to the mar:ket.·"s 

Builds Platform for Smart Cities: ClUes are leveraging wireless 

connectivity and taking an ecosystem approach to transportation. 

Recently, DOT announced that Columbus, OH, was selected as the 

11 
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winner of the DOT Smart City Challenge, which will give the city $40 

m1llion in federal grant money and $10 million from private sources, 

plus the $90 million the c1ty raised from private partners, to upgrade 

1ts transportation system.s9 Columbus' approach mtegrates wireless 

connectivity in every aspect of its system, including: 

Planning for autonomous cars and fleets 

Facilitating connections on buses and trains to create 

access for lower-income residents 

Utilizing a mobile phone enabled universal payment system 

Allocating shuttles for those who are in the most need of 

prenatal care 

Overall, as further advancements in wireless connectivity continue to 

impact the transportation ecosystem, industry experts foresee 

progressively lower costs of transportation, fewer accidents, and new 

Wireless Connectivity Fuels Industry Growth and Innovation 

technologies. New business models, like shared ownership of fleets 

of autonomous vehicles, may emerge as a logical extension of these 

innovations. Ultimately, these changes could potentially benefit 

consumers through improved efficiency, better health and safety, and 

innovative transportation services. 

Creates New Emerging Business Models: Business models in 

transportation will continue to evolve as wireless connectivity 

changes the very foundation of what transportation offers. New 

models will incorporate cross~industry cooperation between original 

equipment manufacturers and telecommunications operators to lower 

barriers for new sources of data to enter the ecosystem, improving 

commuter experience through enhanced local dynamic maps. As a 

result of these emerging business models, opportunities are already 

being created that deepen engagement with drivers through 

augmented or virtual reality dashboards, 
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Wireless Connectivity Fuels Industry Growth and !nnovaUon 

Case Study 

These changes reshaping the energy, public safety, transportation, and health industries- as wen as those being felt across almost all sectors 

of America ~are not taking place in dlsjointed isolation. Rather, they are interconnected and many respects complementary, with advances in 

one industry often lnsplring or creating demand for advances in other industries. The potential represented by next generation wireless 

technologies can be seen by envisioning how the four industries studied here could work together ln response to a natural disaster, such as the 

wl!dfires that devastated portions of eastern Tennessee in late 2:016, What follows below are a few examples of how wireless technology could 

be leveraged by these industries to save lives, property and communities ln responding to future wtldfires or s!m!!ar disaster 

Figure 3: Ecosystem of Connectivity -Increased connectivity drives innovations across every aspect of our economy 

II TransportatlOJ\ 

Source: Oeloitte analysis 

Energy: Energy companies are fe{;eiving data that aHo"vs them to manage the grid !OOCh more efficiently, Sma!! distrlbution centers, prevlous!y 

unmonitored, now have sensors reporting problems. The grid turns Itself off intelHgent!y, detecting outages and downed lines far more precisely, 

so that power is cut off to a !lmited area, rather than a larger neighborhood< This data also enables crews to be quickly and efficiently 

dispatched and power to be more quickly restored after a disaster, allowing the community's recovery to begin. 

Health: Ambulances can be routed in real time away from hospitals that have reached capacity or from roads blocked by the fire, and l nstead 

sent to hospitals that have the best capabiHties to help. The detailed conditions and medical needs of patients are transmitted to hosptta1s in 

advance. The t..>m-ergency room doctors and augmented artlficlallnteiUg:ence medical support are providing reaHime support for basic and 

advanced life support techniques, specifically curated for indMduat patients through direct finks to the patients' medical history. The technology 

a!!ows for more precise logistics management, including the preparation and shipment of supplies, equipment and medical personnel to the 

locat1ons where they are needed most. 

Public Safety; Fire commanders are receiving real·time data from firefighters wearlng sensors, collecting data about the temperature of the fire, 

the amount of smoke belng generated and localized readings of wind speed and directlon. Remote sensors and cameras at ranger stations 

augment the information, a!!owing a 360-degree situational view to be stitched together for other respondents and dedslon makers. The 
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Wireless Connectivity Fuels Industry Growth and Innovation 

tncident command center has a direct link to data analyt1cs at new National Weather Service ground stations with precise information to 

conditions and the latest micro-forecasts. Police and other first responders have real-time information about vulnerable residents, including 

seniors or a recent heart transplant patient Hving alone in threatened areas, and children at day care centers, allowing for quick evacuation and 

lives to be saved. 

Transportation: Roads with sensors embedded in the pavement detect when a fire is getting too close, sending notification to cars that certain 

routes are too dangerous, and directing them instead to safer escape routes, without diverting pubhc safety officials to dose the road. Cars 

traveling along various routes relay information about road conditions, congestion, and hazards to traHing cars using vehicle-to-vehicle 

communication, and trailing vehicles are dynamically rerouted to the nearest evacuation center based on location and prevailing fire conditions 

Conclusions 

The Tennessee example is just one of many recent natural disasters for which the preparation and response could have been potentially 

improved w1th rnore ubiquitous coverage, increased adoption of new technologies, and deployment of next generation wireless technologies. 

Realizing this future- and the benefits for energy, health, transportation, and public safety industries described above- will require a number of 

gaps to be addressed in the following ways: 

Making the permitting and regulatory process more efficient. In some cities, for example, small cells are regulated as if they were 

large cellular towers, With corresponding license requirements, fees and paperwork that inhibit the rollout of innovative wireless 

technologieS 

Estab!ishmg public rights-of-way policies that allow the responsible deployment of small cells near consumers in urban areas 

Lowenng costs and fees requ1red to install new wireless infrastructure, as many municipalities carry fee structures that deter 

investment 

Adapting the siting process to provide more flexibility in placing wireless infrastructure, particularly small cells, in urban areas 

Continuing to support innovation in manufacturing and research to development the next generation of devices and equipment 

The bottom !ine is that communities will miss out on opportunities if action is not taken to streamline the deployment of the wireless 

infrastructure required for SG and smart cities 

14 
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16. "Monitoring Radiation Remotely, in Rea! Time," EPR! 

Journal, 2015, http://eprjjournal.com/monitoring-radiationremotely-in-rea!-time/. 

17. Jeff St. John. "Verizon's Cellular Plan: The Smart-Meter-asSmartphone Network," GTM, July 29, 2015, 

https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/verlzons~ 

cel!utar-plan-the-smart-meter-as-smartphone-network. 

18, Chris Mooney, 'Why 50 Million Smart Meters Still Haven't 

Fixed America's Energy Habits," The Washington Post. 

January 29, 2015, 

https://www.washingtonpostcom/news/energyenvironmentJwp/2015/01/29/americans-are-thls-close-tofinally-understanding-their-electriclty-billsf 

19, ''Smart Grid Solutions Strengthen Electric Reliability and 

Customer Services in Florida," U.S. Department of Energy 

Office of Electricity DeHvery & Energy Rehabil1ty, July 2012, 

https://www.smartgrid.gov/fl!esfFPLcasestudy.pdf. 

20. Chris Mooney, January 29, 2015. !bid. 
114 


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21. David H. Roman and Kyle D. Conlee, 2015, !bid. 

22. "'National Health Expenditure Data," U.S. Centers fer 

Medicare and Medicaid Services, 2015, 

https://www.cms.gov/research~statistics-data-andsystems/statistics-trends-andreports/nationalhealthexpenddata/nhe-fact-sheet.htm!. 

23. David Squires and Chloe Anderson, "U.S. Health Care from 

a Global Perspect1ve: Spending, Use of Services, Prices, 

and Health in 13 Countries,'' The Commonwealth Fund, 

October 2015, 

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issuebriefs/2015/octlus-hea!th-care-from-a-globa!-perspective. 

24. David H. Roman and Kyle D. Conlee, 2015, Ibid. 

25. Leslie Korenda, Claire Boozer Cruse, Greg Reh, ··wm 

Patients and Caregivers Embrace Technology-Enabled 

Health Care?,'' De!oitte University Press, August 30, 2016, 

https://dupress.detoitte.com/contentJdam/dup-usen/a rtic!es/3164 ~-Technology ~en a b!ed-h ea!thcare/Technology-enabled-health-care.pdf. 

26 "Trend Watch: The Promise of Te!ehea!th for Hospitals, 

Health Systems and Their Communities," American Hospital 

Association, January 2015, 

http://www.aha.org/research/reports/tw/15jan-twtelehea!th.pdf. 

27 _ American Hospital Association, January 2015, Ibid. 

28. "Connected Health Case Study: Connected Health, No 

Longer Disruptive- UC Davis Health System," Healthcare 

Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), 

February 10, 2016, http://www.himss.org/connected-hea!thcase-study-connected-health-no-longer-disruptive-uc-davtshealth-system. 

29 "Connected Health Case Study: Dignity Health: Increasing 

Timely Access to Htgh Quality Care Leveraging 

Telemedicine," Healthcare Information and Management 

Systems Society, February 15,2016, 

http·/fwww.himss.org/file/1298591/down!oad?token=q6hBOL 

JC. 

30. Hea!thcare Information and Management Systems Society, 

February 15,2016, !bid. 

31. Andrew Broderick, "Partners Healthcare: Connecting Heart 

Failure Patients to Providers Through Remote Monitoring," 

The Commonwealth Fund, January 2013, 

http:J/www.commonwea!thfund.org/-/media/f!les/pub!ications 

/case 

study/2013/jan/1656_broderick. telehealth .adoption_partners 

~ case.~study.pdf.'' Mortality Benefit of a Fourth-Generation 

Synchronous Telehealth Program for the Management of 

Chronic Cardiovascular Disease: A Longitudinal Study," 

Journal of Medical Internet Research, May 13, 2016, 

https:l/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/artic!es/PMC4909389/. RJ 

Krawiec, Jessica Nadler, Elan Tye, Jennifer Jarboe, "No 

Wireless Connectivity Fuels Industry Growth and lnnovatJon 

Appointment Necessary: How the loT and Patient-Generated 

Data Can Unlock Health Care Value," Deloitte University 

Press, http://dupress.deloftte.com/dup~us*en/focus/internetof-thingsfiot-in-health-care-industry.html. 

32. Darrell M. West, "How 5G Technology Enables the Health 

Internet of Things," Center for Technology Innovation at The 

Brookings Institution, July 2016, 

https://www.brookings.edu/wpcontent/up!oads/2016/07/How-5G-tech-enables-heafth-iotwest. pdf. 

33. "Number (in Millions) of Civilian, Non-Institutionalized 

Persons with Diagnosed Diabetes, United States, 1980-

2014," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 

December 1, 2015. 

https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/statist!cs/prev/nationaf/figperso 

ns.htm." 2014 National Diabetes Statistics Report." Centers 

for Disease Control and Prevention, May 15,2015, 

https://www.cdc.govldiabetes/data/statistlcs/2014statisttcsre 

port.html. 

34. Darren M. West, July 2016, !bid. 

35. Jeanne Whalen, "FDA Approves Medtronic's New 

Automated Insulin Pump," The Wall Street Journal, 

September 28, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/fdaapproves-medtronics-new-automated-insulin-pump1475093556. 

36. Heather Mack.~Report: Global market for connected 

wearables, health devices expected to reach $6128 by 

2024." Mob! Health News. August 11,2016, 

http://W1NW.mobihea!thnews.com/contentlreport-g!obalmarket-connected-wearab!es-health-devices~expectedreach-612b-2024. 

37. ·'The Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program -Building 

a Research Foundation for 21st Century Medicine.' National 

Institutes of Health, September 17, 2015, 

https://w.NW.nih.gov/sltes/defau!tlfiles/research· 

training/initiatives/pmi/pmi-working-group·report-20150917-

2.pdf. 

38. Ana Ligia Silva de Lima, Tim Hahn, Nienke M de Vries, Eli 

Cohen, Lauren Bataille, Max A Little, Heribert Baldus, 

Bastiaan R Bloem, and Marjan J Faber, "Large-Scale 

Wearable Sensor Deployment in Parkinson's Patients: The 

Parkinson@Home Study Protocol," Journal of Medical 

Internet Research, Vol5(3), e172, July-September 2016, 

https://www.ncbi. nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC50181 02/. 

39. P. Divali, J. Camosso-Stefinovic, and R. Baker, ''The Use of 

Personal Digital Assistants in Clinical Decision Making by 

Health Care Professionals: A Systematic Review," Health 

Informatics J, March 2013, 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23486823. 

40. ''Mercy Opens World's First Virtual Care Center,'' Mercy 

Saint Louis Missouri, October 6, 2015, 

'16 
115 


25371.080

https://www. mercy. netlnewsroom/2015-1 0~06/mercy-openswor!ds-first-vtrtual-care-center. 

41 Elizabeth Wilde, July 2013, Ibid 

42 Noelle Phillips, ''After Deep Cuts During Recession, Front 

Range Law Enforcement Agencies Still Digging Out While 

Trying to Keep Up With Colorado's Population Boom," The 

Denver Post. December 5, 2016, 

http://www.denverpost com/2016/12/05/denver-growingpopulation~law-enforcement/ 

43. Esme Vas, 'The Cameras Work: Denver's wireless video 

survemance," MuniWire!ess, June 14, 2010. 

http:J/muniwireless.com/2010/06/14/denver-wire!ess-videosurveil!ance/ 

44 "Scientifically Proven Field Results,' PredPol, 2015, 

http://www.predpol.com/resutts/ 

45. PredPa!, 2015, Ibid. 

46. PredPol, 2015, Ibid. 

47. Elizabeth Wilde, July 2013, Ibid. 

48. "PubUc Safety, Justice, and. the Internet of Everything," 

Cisco, 2014, 

http:/Jwww.nascio.org/events/sponsors/vrc/Pub!ic%20Safety 

%20Justlce0

/o20and%,20the%20lnternet%20of%20Everythln 

g.pdf. 

49 Robert Mitchum, "Chicago Becomes First City to Launch 

Array of Things," UCh!cagoNews, August 29, 2016, 

https://news. uchicago.edu/artic1e/2016/08/29/chicagobecomes-first-city-launch-array-things. 

50. "Ideas You Can Use: Chicago's 'Array of Things' Project," 

Smart Cities Council, July 19, 2016, 

Wireless Connectivity Fuels Industry Growth and Innovation 

http://smartcltiescouncil.com/article!ldeas-you~can-usechicagos-array-things-project 

51. Scott Corwin, Joe Vitale, Eamonn Kelly, and Elizabeth 

Cathles, 2015, !bid. 

52. Daniel J. Fagnant and Kara Kocke!man, 2013. Ibid. 

53. Orion Jones, "Ford Predicts Self-Driving Cars Will Cut Traffic 

by 2017,'' The Big Think, Inc., 2015, 

http:/lbigthink.com/ideafeed/ford-predicts-self-driving-carswill-cut-traffic-by-2017. 

54. Daniel J. Fagnant and Kara Kockelman, 2013, Ibid. 

55. Adam Werbach, "The American Commuter Spends 38 Hours 

a Year Stuck in Traffic," The Atlantic Magazine, February 6, 

2013, 

http://WVJW.theat!antic.com/bus1ness/archive/2013102/theamerican-commuter-spends-38-hours-a-year-stuck-lntraffic/272905/. 

56. "2010 Status of the Nation's Highways, Bridges, and Transit: 

Conditions & Performance," U.S. Department of 

Transportation Office of Policy and Governmental Affairs, 

2010, https:l/www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyi2010cpr/chap1.cfm. 

57. Scott Corwin, Joe Vitale, Eamonn Kelly, and Elizabeth 

Cathles, 2015, !bid. 

58. "5G Creates New Opportunities for Connected Vehicles," 

Scania, February 25, 2016, 

https:/fwww.scania.com/group/enl5g-creates-new~ 

opportunities-for-connected-vehicles/. 

59. Rick Rouan. "Columbus awarded $50 million in Smart City 

grants." The Columbus Dispatch, June 21, 2016, 

http://www.dispatch.com/contenUstories/!oca!/2016/06/21JCo 

lumbus-Smart-City-granthtm!. 

17 
116 


25371.081

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117 


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About the Report 

This report was made possible through CTIA's sponsorship, but the contents and analysis of the report were 

included at the sole discretion of Deloitte. CTIA is an international nonprofit membership organization that has 

represented the wireless communications industry since 1984. The association's members include wireless 

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36 usc 220506 
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epic.org 

March 16,2017 

The Honorable Robert Latta, Chairman 

Electronic Privacy Information Center 

1718 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 200 

Washington, DC 20009, USA 

The Honorable Janice Schakowsky, Ranking Member 

U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce 

Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection 

2125 Rayburn House Office Building 

Washington, DC 20515 

RE: Hearing on "Disrupter Series: Smart Communities" 

Dear Chairman Latta and Ranking Member Schakowsky: 

\.. .,., 202 4831140 

~ •1 202 4831248 

"!§ @EPICPrivacy 

@! https://epic.org 

We write to you regarding the upcoming Disrupter Series hearing on "Smart 

Communities" that will be held on March 16,2017. The implications oflnternet of Things 

("loT") for consumer privacy and security are far-reaching. EPIC urges the Committee to 

consider the substantial privacy and security implications that come with the increased use of 

connected and "smart" devices. Specifically, core considerations in the development of smart 

communities should be prioritizing cybersecurity, protecting individual privacy, and minimizing 

data collection and sharing. 

The Electronic Privacy lnfonnation Center was established in 1994 to focus public 

attention on emerging privacy and civil liberties issues. EPIC is a leading advocate for consumer 

privacy and has appeared before this Committee on several occasions, and has actively 

participated in the proceedings of the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") and the Federal 

Communications Commission ("FCC"). 1 EPIC has considerable expertise in the lntemet of 

Things. EPIC has testified before Congress on "the Internet of Cars" and Smart Grid2 

1 See. e.g, Marc Rotenberg, EPIC Executive Director, Testimony before the U.S. House Energy & 

Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, Examining the Ell Safe Harhor Decision 

and Impacts far Transatlantic Data Flows (November 13, 2015), 

https:!/cpic.org/privacy/intlischrems/EPIC-EU-SH-Testimony-I!CEC-11-3-final.pdf; Marc Rotenberg, 

EPIC Executive Director, Testimony before the U.S.llousc Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on 

Communications and Technology, Communications Netv.'orks and Consumer PrivaG}\. Recent 

Developments (Apri123, 2009), https:l/epic.org/privacy/dpi/rotcnbcrg_HouseCom_ 4-09.pdf; Letter from 

EPIC to the U.S. !louse Committee on Energy and Commerce on FCC Privacy Rules (June 13, 2016), 

https://epic.org/privacy/consumcr/EPIC-FCC-Privacy-Ru1es.pdf; Letter from EPIC to the U.S. Senate 

Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on FTC Oversight (Sept. 26, 20 I 6), 

https:/icpic.org/privacy/consumer/EPJC-l.cttcr-Scn-Comm-CST-FTC-Ovcrsight.pdf. 

2 EPIC Associate Director Kha1iah Barnes, Testimony Before the U.S. House of Representatives, 

Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Subcommittees on Information Technology and 

Transportation and Public Assets, The Internet of' Cars. Nov. 18,2015, 

https://epic.org/privacy/edrs/EPJC- Connected-Cars-Testimony- Nov-18-2015.pdf; EPJC Associate 

Director Lillie Coney, Testimony Before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and 

Technology, Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation, Smart Grid Architecture and Standards: 

EPlC Letter to U.S. House of Representatives l Smart Communities 

Energy & Commerce Committee March 16, 2017 

Defend Privacy, S p E 
119 


25371.084

The need for strong cybersecurity measure in cities is already evident. Shortly before the 

20 I 7 Presidential Inauguration, the Washington Metropolitan Police Department's closed-circuit 

television cameras were hacked and unable to record for three days_4 In November, hackers 

infiltrated San Francisco's public transportation system and threatened to release customer and 

employee data unless a ransom was paid5 Hackers have also targeted police departments across 

the country by breaching their computer systems, holding files for ransom, and deleting files 

when they are not paid.6 

A recent DHS report found that cybersecurity was a top concern in both the public and 

private sector7 That same report also noted that most states acknowledged their lack of 

understanding of cybersecurity practiccs8 For smart communities to be successful they will need 

to have support from state governments and those govemments will need to have a strong 

understanding of how to keep their communities secure from cyber threats. The potential benefits 

of smart cities will not be achieved if the systems are insecure and cities are subject to hacks that 

threaten public safety. 

Protecting individual privacy must also be a priority in the development of smart 

communities. As these communities develop, special care must be taken to safeguard data 

generated by private individuals. For example, several cities have already entered into data 

disclosure agreements with popular traffic apps that rely on self-reporting9 Communities must 

be transparent with the public about how the data they receive is used and ensure that consumer 

data is protected. 

Transparency is also essential. The public has a right to know if data will be used to 

determine changes in how first responders operate, especially law enforcement. An increased 

police presence could lead to the impression that some communities are being treated differently 

than others and that some individuals are viewed differently because of where they live or who 

Assessing Coordination and Progress, https:/lcpic.org/privacy/smartgrid/Smart_ Grid Tcstimony __ 20 I 0-

07-0l.pdf. 

'Clarence Williams, Hackers Hit D_C Police Closed-Circuit Camera Network, City Ofjicials Disclose, 

Washington Post, Jan. 27, 2017, https:llwww. washingtonpost.com/locallpublic-safcty/hackcrs-hit-dcpolicc-closcd-circuit-camcra-nctwork-city-officials-disclosc/20 17/0 1127/d285a4a4-c4f5-ll c6-ba ll63c4b4!b5a63 _story.html. 5 Robert Hackett, Hackers Threaten to Release 30GB of'Stolen Data From San Francisco's Municipal 

Railway, Fortune, Nov. 28,2016, http://fortunc.com/2016/11128/muni-hack-san-franciscol. 

''Chris Francescani, Ransomware Hackers Blackmail US. Police Departments, CNBC, Apr. 26,2016, 

http: I /www. en be. com/2 0 16/04/2 6/ ransomwarc-hackers-b lackmai 1-us-po licc-dcpartmcn ts_ html. 7 National Preparedness Report, DHS, Mar. 30, 2016, https:llwww.fcma.gov/mcdia-library-

~ata/147681 7353589-987d6a58c2cb 124ac6b 19efl f7c9a77d/20 16NPR _508c_ 052716 _1600 _alla.pdf. 

I d. 9 Panny Olson, Why Coogle's Waze Is hading User Data With Local Governments, Forbes, Jul. 7, 20!4, 

https://www. forbes. com/ s itcs/pannyo lson/20 14107/07/ why -googl c-wazc-he Ips-local-governments-trackits-users/; Nick Stockton, Boston Is Partnering With Waze To Make Its Road> Less Ol A Nightmare, 

Wired, Feb. 20, 2015, https://www. wired.com/20 15/02/boston-partnering-wazc-makc-roads- lessnightmare/. 

EPIC Letter to U.S. House of Representatives 

Energy & Commerce Committee 

2 Smart Communities 

March 16,2017 
120 

Æ 


25371.085

they know. 10 Predictive policing tools are already in use throughout the criminal justice system, 

although little is known about how these tools, which rely on social and personal information, 

operate. EPIC has filed a Freedom of Information Act suit to obtain documents related to the use 

of "risk assessment" tools in the criminal justice system. 11 We urge the Committee to question 

what role, if any, these tools will have in law enforcement and criminal justice in smart 

communities. 

Finally, we would urge the Committee to stress that data collection must be minimized in 

the development of smart communities. Smart communities should promote Privacy Enhancing 

Techniques (PETs) that minimize or eliminate the collection of personal information. The 

collection of personally identifiable information will necessarily require new privacy laws and 

safeguards. If smart communities fail to minimize data collection and establish strong privacy 

and security measures to safeguard the data that is collected, they will almost necessarily place 

their inhabitants at risk of system failure and cyber attacks. 

We ask that this letter be entered in the hearing record. EPIC looks forward to working 

with the Committee on these issues of vital importance to the American public. 

Sincerely, 

is/ Marc Rotenberg 

Marc Rotenberg 

EPIC President 

lsi Caitriona Fitzgerald 

Caitriona Fitzgerald 

EPIC Policy Director 

lsi Kim M,.,_,il"'le""r ____ _ 

Kim Miller 

EPIC Policy Fellow 

"'Matt Stroud, The Minority Report: Chicago's New Police Computer Predicts Crimes, But Is It Racist?, 

The V crge, Feb. 19, 2014, http://www.theverge.com/20 14/2119/5419854/thc-minority-report-thiscomputer- predicts-crime-but-is-it-racist; John Eligon, Timothy Williams, Police Program Aims to 

Pinpoint Those ,'vfost Likely To Commit Crimes. New York Times, Sept. 24,2015, 

https://www. n yti mcs. com/20 I 5/09/2 5/usipo I icc-program-aims-to-pinpoint-those-most -lik c ly -to-commitcrimes.html. 

11 EPIC v. DOJ, No. 17-410, (D.C. Cir. filed Mar. 7, 20 17), https://cpic.org/foia/doj/criminal-justicealgorithms/EPIC-v-DOJ-criminal-justice-algorithms-complaint.pdf. 

EPIC Letter to U.S. House of Representatives 

Energy & Commerce Committee 

3 Smart Communities 

March 16,2017