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Press Release -- June 2nd, 2014
Source: Verizon
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Smart Cities: Verizon Separates Fact from Fiction

Many studies show that cities will be more attractive to increasingly mobile populations and knowledge-based industries over the next few decades. That’s why visionary leaders and civic developers are über-focused on making cities even more competitive. But the question remains – how do you make cities safer, greener, faster, friendlier – simply put, smarter?

Fiction:
Once upon a time many were led to believe that municipalities needed to make broad sweeping financial investments via a systems integrator in order to achieve smart cities. Verizon’s Mark Bartolomeo, vice president and head of Connected Solutions says that view was unrealistic.

Fact:
“In reality, municipalities are looking at their existing infrastructure and needing to prioritize based on what makes the most sense for them.”

  • For example, with one study finding that 45 percent of the traffic in Brooklyn, New York, is generated by people looking for a parking space, solving for traffic congestion is a top priority.
  • Meanwhile the western United States continues to grapple with droughts and wild fires making water management a main concern.
  • In other geographies with rising crime rates, it’s about creating meaningful public safety initiatives that drive immediate results.

Solution:
Bartolomeo says that as municipalities solve for these challenges via machine-to-machine technology in combination with cloud, security and mobile applications, determining how they will fund these solutions is equally as important.

“Moving forward, we’ll see more of a push toward public-private partnerships so that municipalities are not carrying the burden of making these investments both in terms of core competency and funding. As these partnerships increase, it will be important to illustrate return on investment not only in the near-term but also downstream. ”

To learn more about Verizon’s smart cities solutions, watch the video below.

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