Do You Know ?
Smart City
By Pang Soo Mooi
Defining “ Smart City ”
There are many definitions of “ smart city ” by various entities such as IBM , McKinsey and Government agencies . The concept and planning of a smart city garnered more attention recently as the urban population worldwide crossed the 50 % point . For Malaysia , Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur ( DBKL ) defined “ smart city ” as the concerted urban management approach that places people at the centre of its initiatives and applies various technologies to enhance and improve its citizens ’ lives .
However , there is one common element in all of these definitions : they agree that smart cities , at the core , leverage new and disruptive technologies to address a broad range of urban problems . The application of ICT-based technologies and digitalisation has resulted in the transformation of cities by using more efficient and innovative ways of getting things done .
Smart cities around the world have made huge strides in initiatives and innovative smart technologies to make them more sustainable and energy-efficient as well as minimise carbon emissions .
Smart Cities and 5G : Taking it to the Next Level – Deloitte
Singapore ’ s planned eco-smart city , Tengah , aims to use artificial intelligence to support smart energy management . Fukuoka , Japan , is drawing on sensor data to build models that can help monitor water use . San Diego , California , uses an app to connect , co-ordinate , and manage service requests . Vienna , Austria , uses WienBot , a chatbot that provides answers to a range of user questions , and continuously learns from its “ conversations ” to capture the public ’ s most frequently asked questions — of particular importance during the COVID pandemic .
These global examples of how smart cities are using technology are ever-growing . But with all these innovative applications come the potential for bottlenecks that can slow down operations , diminish the ability to scale solutions , and impede the development of the smart city ecosystem .
Enter 5G . 5G brings the capacity that smart cities need to connect — enabling the use of sensors , data , analytics , and more . Critical to the evolution of urban spaces into sustainable , resilient , and efficient entities , 5G is the key to the future of smart cities .
The number of Internet of Things ( IoT ) active connections in smart cities in the European Union alone is expected to double by 2025 , with the global IoT in smart cities market size expected to grow by 18.8 % overall . This ability to connect a range of urban activities — from traffic to energy to garbage — gathering data to improve services , quality of life , and environmental impact is what makes a smart city smart . But the only way to realistically support the number of devices and sensors needed to achieve that quality of life and services is through 5G .
An emerging global wireless standard , 5G enables a new kind of network that is designed to connect virtually everyone and everything together — including machines , objects , and devices — all at an exponentially higher rate than current networks . Consider 4G ’ s ability to connect an average of 2,000 devices per square kilometre ( km 2 ) against 5G ’ s 1 million devices per km 2 . 5G also boasts increased speed ( up to 10 gigabytes per second versus 4G ’ s 300 megabytes per second ), lower latency ( network connection delay between devices ), and better reliability .
5G ’ s higher performance and improved efficiency can empower the user experiences and connections integral to the smart city vision . It also allows for stronger end-to-end security — not
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