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Livin’ it up in the City: Deutsche Telekom enhances urban life across Europe

  • Deutsche Telekom smart city solutions: from smart parking and lighting to smart safety, electric vehicle charging and smart waste management
  • Technology leadership: Next-generation smart parking application available on first live NB-IoT end-to-end system
  • Deutsche Telekom showcases capabilities at Smart City World Congress, November 15-17 in Barcelona

From Bonn to Budapest, Gijón to Dubrovnik, Bucharest and Prague – Thanks to Deutsche Telekom’s smart city initiatives, life in many of Europe’s metropoles is becoming more convenient. Building on its Internet of Things (IoT) expertise as well as its IT integration capabilities, the Group is introducing innovative smart city solutions all around Europe. Deutsche Telekom is working together with its partners and city administrations with the aim to benefit citizens, visitors and municipalities alike. The Group has also recently become the first telecommunications provider to introduce innovative smart city solutions based on the new technology Narrowband-IoT.

“Today’s cities are faced with enormous challenges, from continued rapid growth and resulting ecological and economic pressures, to complex urban transformation needs due to recent technology advances,” says Ralf Nejedl, Senior Vice President, B2B/ICT Sales & Service Europe at Deutsche Telekom. “Deutsche Telekom’s smart city approach focuses on helping cities manage these challenges with a clear focus on increasing the quality of life and safety for their citizens, attracting visitors and supporting the economic development.”

Smart city living made easy

Deutsche Telekom has long been partnering with cities and other technology companies to deliver pilot projects, based on solutions for smart parking and transport management, as well as intelligent street lighting. However, Deutsche Telekom is now also pushing ahead with additional smart city applications including public safety, electric vehicle charging as well as smart waste management.

One such solution is provided by Kiwi Security. The service increases the safety of citizens and visitors by monitoring public areas through video cameras and using advanced picture analysis applications in order to automatically detect incidents and report them to the authorities.

An additional example is EcoMobile, a smart waste management solution which makes waste disposal more efficient and transparent. Waste bins are equipped with so-called RFID tags that give the receiving unit, which is installed in the rear side of the garbage truck, information about the relevant household, the service ordered and the current fill-level of the bin. The information will be transferred securely into a cloud database and automatically to the enterprise resource planning (ERP) program of the municipal waste collection service.

Finally, Electric vehicle charging links parking lot owners with energy service providers in order to provide electric car owners with a secure and easy way to charge their vehicles. The solution also enables access to a wider network of charging stations. Currently there are 60,000 charging stations in Europe and by 2020 it is estimated that nearly 4,000,000 electric vehicles will be circulating within the same footprint.

Riding the Narrowband-IoT fast train

Deutsche Telekom has last month announced the world’s first live Narrowband IoT end-to-end system in Germany, a key enabler for the smart city of tomorrow. Narrowband-IoT is a technology which provides network coverage for a wide area as well as deep in-building coverage at a low cost and with minimal energy consumption. It is therefore ideally suited for a vast number of smart city solutions which often require the communication of only small amounts of information, such as ‘on/off’, ‘full/empty’, ‘free/occupied’.

Deutsche Telekom’s first Narrowband-IoT smart city application, a smart parking system, is already up-and-running in Bonn, Germany. Deutsche Telekom is planning to roll out its Narrowband-IoT network across Europe next year and is already far advanced in developing Narrowband IoT-based smart city solutions via its ‘Narrowband IoT Prototyping Hub’ initiative in Bonn, as well as at its hub:raum facilities in Berlin and Krakow.

Join the discussion

As market leader, Deutsche Telekom continues to drive cutting edge smart city development. The Group will discuss its smart city vision as well as showcase its smart city solutions during the Smart City World Congress, November 15-17 in Barcelona, Grand Via Hall 2, Level 0, Street E, Stand 509. On November 16, as part of the adjacent LPWA Europe event in Barcelona, Ralf Nejedl, Senior Vice President, B2B/ICT Sales & Service Europe at Deutsche Telekom will also discuss its Narrowband-IoT achievements and future plans in a session entitled ‘Changing the Game – NB-IoT.’

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