Forget smart cities, smart regions are where it’s at.
Nokia is putting its significant smart city-building experience to work helping to create a smart region from the ground up. TianFu New Area is a collection of cities, towns, villages, and districts planned to cover 609 square miles of territory in western China.
Launched in December of 2011, Chengdu Tianfu New Area is a major undertaking with the goal in mind of creating a modern urban area with residential, commercial, and industrial centers that serve as a hub for International business and economic development.
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Nokia’s role in this project is a big one. In an agreement signed with the Tianfu New Area Chengdu Administrative Committee, Nokia agrees to aid in the development of the region’s Internet of Things (IoT) network which will connect numerous critical infrastructure systems together.
“The TianFu New Area development project presents an exciting opportunity to build a smart city – or actually a smart region – from the ground up,” Said Mike Wang, the president of Greater China for Nokia. “The communications network will serve as the brain and nervous system of the smart city, and we welcome the opportunity to apply Nokia’s technology and know-how to the challenge of building the digital infrastructure that will support this groundbreaking effort.”
The region’s new “brain and nervous system”
Wang’s description of the project as a brain and nervous system of the city is a particularly good analogy. This network would enable better monitoring and communication between the transportation, safety, and other critical municipal systems to take place.
A smart city includes an array of sensors and monitoring equipment would enable the city’s infrastructure to be closely monitored and managed from a central hub rather than numerous smaller systems spread out across the area. Smart city technologies promote efficiency,
This network will make Tianfu New Area one of a handful of modern smart cities, and arguably one of the single largest IoT hubs in the world.
This isn’t Nokia’s first sign of interest in the region. In late 2015, it announced plans to expand on its a global research and development center there. The center focuses on research and development of Nokia’s network services and products.
