Contact us Home Resources Blog Why core connectivity is a foundational enabler for smart cities An interview with Paul Wilson, Chief Business Officer at Connected Places Catapult and Chair of Smart Cities World SHARE THIS It may not always be as revolutionary and Sci-Fi-esque as portrayed by the media, but smart city technology is gradually working its way into the fabric of our cities. It’s often present in unheralded applications that quietly improve our everyday lives. As 5G networks are introduced across the country though, the potential of smart city technology will really begin to be realised and we’ll find ourselves interacting with smart technology all the time. But what’s driving the rise of smart cities, and is it inevitable? We spoke with Paul Wilson, Chief Business Officer at Connected Places Catapult and Chair of Smart Cities World, to find out more. “Rapid urbanisation is an enormous issue,” says Wilson. “At a carbon level, buildings or built infrastructure, accounts for about one-sixth of global emissions and transport systems add a further sixth. So if you put the two together, transport and the built environment, about a third of all CO2 emissions happen in those two sectors, which are obviously key parts of the city. It’s a big, big issue.” The danger with rapid urbanisation, of course, is that living standards slide as facilities and infrastructure struggle to keep pace. This has been a challenge throughout human history, right from the emergence of the very first cities in the Middle East. Now however, we have the means to ensure cities remain liveable, even as they expand exponentially. Better urban planning and widespread data utilisation will play a huge role in smart cities, bringing about more enhancements that are largely invisible, yet may often support the fundamental workings of a city. Providing seamless solutions and going unnoticed is, after all, the ultimate aim for smart technology. It should just become part of our everyday lives. Some applications will prove too significant to go under the radar, however. A wider impact As the networks underpinning smart city technology become more and more widespread, and local authorities become more confident in their ability to bring ideas to life, we’ll start to see increasingly ambitious uses. “I think that 5G in its fullest sense is the biggest moment in the development of smart cities,” says Wilson. “What I’m really talking about is the ability to virtualise the network to create a heterogeneous quality of service, so that you’re able to support multiple different devices that have different requirements, on demand. You might call that autonomous networking. “From a dumb IOT sensor just measuring temperature, to an autonomous vehicle approaching traffic lights: two very different scenarios, and yet the network will be able to respond, on demand, to the requirements.” We haven’t reached that stage yet, but 5G will get us closer towards it – and will open up some truly exciting, truly game-changing applications. Wilson adds: “More generally, an enormous amount can and needs to happen, from air-quality monitoring that changes the transport system, to much more enjoyable media and entertainment and a more highly functional built environment that responds to weather conditions. And if climate change continues in the way that some think it will, we need to be thinking about those adaptive systems. So you’ll be able to use real-time data from environmental monitoring or perhaps from me as a citizen, and the physical environment can be altered to suit. “At the simplest level, it might be like your smart home, where you arrive home and the lights go on. But then you scale that up across the large systems that local government manages around waste, energy supply, even food systems: it goes on and on.” Citywide smart systems like these are much closer to the visions of smart cities that attract most public attention and grab the headlines. Of course, this level of interconnectivity requires high-performance digital infrastructure. Networks supporting these systems must be completely reliable, particularly if they’re operating fundamental services such as energy and water supply. Necessary networks The integration of smart technology across a whole town or city will require a combination of countless sensors, vast amounts of data and Internet of Things-enabled devices. This will in turn need dependable, high capacity networks. And this is where experts like Neos Networks come in. “I think the key enabler is a core fibre infrastructure,” says Wilson. “It’s foundational, and it’s hard to see how you’re going to do well without it. I would say what you need most of all though, is the ability to slice the fibre. You need a software-defined network that you can partition for different purposes.” Once a solid base of high-performing digital infrastructure is in place, smart cities will be much better prepared to implement not only current technology, but also innovations to come in the years ahead. Smart technology is an extremely creative field, where people push boundaries and new applications are invented all the time. Being able to capitalise upon such opportunities and integrate the very latest innovations will be invaluable, allowing cities to give people the best quality of life they can. Obstacles to overcome As with any new technology, smart cities will inevitably face resistance, from the general public as well as from those in government. And this resistance might be particularly pronounced because smart cities require substantial investment – during a pandemic-fuelled economic slowdown. Another potential issue is maintaining a vision – and an appetite – for projects, especially given the timescales and costs involved. Wilson says: “One of the challenges in the democratic system is that politicians keep changing every few years. Sometimes, the next regime is elected and it wants to change something. It’s relatively unusual to find politicians who are well-informed about how the technology works, and so it becomes a high priority for one regime and is de-prioritised by the next.” There’s also the problem of having so many different parties involved – through necessity – in the creation of smart cities. There will have to be fairly rigid remits to ensure that work stays focused and all parties understand their roles, as well as common frameworks to unite organisations who all have their own ways of operating. As Wilson puts it: “Another big issue is finding the right relationship between the public and private sector. Quite clearly, the private sector will make and manage much of the technology, but you’ll need agreement about how data from government entities can be used.” “You have all kinds of collaborations between the public and private sectors, academia, small enterprises, environmental agencies, the general public and so on…So you start to add in all these layers of different organisations in the city and how they work together, and that is quite a conundrum of unparalleled collaboration.” In smart city projects with countless variables, one thing is for certain though. Having high-performance network infrastructure in place is an absolute must. Plans for smart cities are getting ever-more impressive and ambitious, but they all need a solid foundation of core connectivity. We can help lay these foundations, setting local authorities up to deliver a better quality of life for their citizens. Paul Wilson is Chief Business Officer at Connected Places Catapult, the UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport and places. Paul is also chair of Smart Cities World’s Advisory Board, a Board member of UK5G and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Bristol’s Smart Internet Lab. Paul has more than 25 years’ international leadership experience in sales, marketing and product management in the B2B Technology Media Telecom sector, including being Chief Marketing Officer of $3bn SunGard Financial Systems and CMO of the global digital transformation association TM Forum which works with the world’s leading 100 telecoms companies. Paul was a founder of the Bristol Is Open smart city project in 2014, winning various international awards, and went on to be TM Forum’s Global Smart City advisor, co-creating the widely endorsed City as a Platform Manifesto a couple of years later. From there he advised the UK Government on the design of its £200m 5G Testbeds & Trials Programme, and on how the Programme should evolve, as well as helping to set up UK5G. The IET invited Paul to author ‘The state of smart cities in the UK’ for its inaugural smart cities journal in 2019. Paul has been a member of the judging panel for the IOT Global Awards since 2019. Paul is a regular conference speaker and moderator, engagingly combining public policy vision with in-depth technology understanding. He has lived in London, Hong Kong and Geneva, and worked extensively in America. Today he lives with his family in Bristol, England. RELATED PRODUCTS Dark Fibre Our extensive Dark Fibre network provides complete flexibility with near limitless capacity. Learn more Wide Area Network Wide Area Networking (WAN) has the capability to truly optimise your network providing complete visibility, control and flexibility. 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