We hear and feel the chorus from around the world that cities are where we can solve problems. Working at the City of Austin, we totally agree. But before we’re able to move forward as the champions of change, it’s time for some real talk.
Read MoreAlthough U.S. companies are plowing forward to build up 5G infrastructure, the wireless industry has long acknowledged that it is trailing China (T-Mobile CEO John Legere told CNBC this spring “we are behind China,” while vowing that his company’s merger with Sprint would help the U.S. catch up). Carriers are competing to launch 5G in major and mid-market cities before the end of the year, but the infrastructure necessary to get the network online remains costly and time-consuming, as 5G relies on installation of small cells to expand the network and increase speeds and connectivity for customers.
Read MoreAlthough 80 percent of Americans live in cities, urban issues are often put on the nation’s back burner. But residents still expect their city governments to deliver the day-to-day services that make or break their quality of life.
Read MoreAs director of marketing for a SaaS platform serving Multifamily and campus communities, I am constantly keeping my eye on big development deals. One area that caught my eye recently is Tampa Bay, Florida. I was somewhat surprised to read an article about the Water Street Tampa project by Strategic Property Partners (SPP), a real estate development joint venture between Cascade Investment, LLC and Jeff Vinik, the current owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning and a minority owner of the Boston Red Sox.
Read MoreSan Antonio is in the early stages of installing smart technologies in three designated “innovation zones” – Brooks, the Medical Center and downtown.
Decades ago, wireless deployment served only a narrow purpose for a narrow constituency. Today, it provides nearly limitless ways to make life easier for all people through the power of mobility. As we enter the next generation of wireless technology known as 5G, we know that mobility encompasses much more than telecommunications.
Read MoreAn accountant, a farmer and a teacher walk into a train depot... Sounds like the beginning of a great joke doesn’t it? Funny enough, I met people in each of those professions as well as many others at the AgLanta Conference 2018. At this year’s conference, we focused on the role of agriculture in ‘smart cities’. To start the conference off, Henry Gordon-Smith, Founder of Agritecture, so eloquently asked the audience: “can a city really be smart without agriculture?”
Last week, city officials from around the country gathered in Los Angeles to share ideas about how government can be more data-driven, creative and effective in solving public problems. The raison d'etre for the Government Performance and Innovation Summit, an annual event hosted by Governingmagazine and its nonprofit partner Living Cities, is to showcase, spread and scale up promising programs and practices in local government.
Read MoreAutonomous cars are much in the news, mostly because of the collisions that are bound to happen as we mix human and robot drivers. These raise obvious questions — who pays when a robocar kills? — but the uproar over safety overlooks the fact that autonomous technology will take over commercial trucking long before the average person has to decide whether to ride in a robo-cab. Companies are building autonomous trucks today for the controlled environments of shipping ports and large industrial sites (which already have self-driving forklifts!).
Read MoreAs far as professions go, conservationists are not known for their optimism. And, with the future of the planet looking so bleak, who can blame them? By 2100, the world is on track for more than three degrees of warming, sliding past the targets set by the Paris climate accord in 2015. By the middle of this century, between 15 and 37 per cent of species sampled in one study could be completely gone. In 2016, it became clear that giraffe populations had declined by 40 per cent over the last 30 years, earning the animals a spot on the endangered species list.
Read MoreLocal governments are solution-driven and strive to improve residents' lives. But not all cities seek solutions in the same manner, or have the same success.
There are 355 smart city projects in 221 cities, according to a new report from Navigant Research; almost one in five now cut across multiple industry sectors, as smart city integration gathers pace. The total value of the smart cities market will more than double in the next decade, from $40.1 billion in 2017 to 94.2 billion by the end of 2026.
Read MoreOver $14.85 billion have been spent on smart city initiatives in 2015. By 2020, the figure is expected to double and reach $34.45 billion.
Read MoreSmart city projects in China are expected to generate $320 billion for the nation's economy by 2025, according to Frost & Sullivan.
Read MoreALEXANDRIA, Va. -- The National Science Foundation (NSF) announces an important milestone in its Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) effort. In collaboration with an industry consortium of 28 networking companies and associations, NSF is supporting the development and deployment of the first two PAWR research platforms, based in Salt Lake City and New York City. These platforms will power research motivated by real-world challenges on experimental, next generation wireless test beds at the scale of cities and communities. The goal is to advance the state of the art for wireless technology beyond today's 4G, LTE and emerging 5G capabilities.
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