Communications Giant Applies Smart City Features

Communications Giant Applies Smart City Features

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Smart City infrastructures can increase citizen satisfaction and economic development, as well as improve safety and sustainability, by enabling improvements across key drivers in transit, lighting, parking, security, the environment and infrastructure.

A new smart city technology that’s designed to improve public safety and city operations will be tested at Hutchinson, Kansas, and be implemented nationwide in early 2020.

The program, applied by AT&T, will include several smart city features. First, the system will allow 911 dispatchers to tap into a caller’s cell phone camera for a live feed. The real-time information would help direct law enforcement during a crime in progress, according to the local Police Chief Jeff Hooper.

“The dispatcher wouldn’t have to give you a description of the suspect because you would see what’s going on en route to the call,” he added.

The program would also provide drones with cameras to give first responders a better view of large-scale disasters. That kind of tool would have had an impact during the wildfires that struck in recent years. “It would give us instant video feedback of that scene so we know whether people were in danger or people were evacuating without putting emergency services and lives in danger,” Hooper said, according to kmuw.org.

Sensors at intersections would provide up-to-the-minute details on traffic flow and congestion.

The company would provide the smart city equipment, hardware, and software for free, and would use the city’s existing infrastructure so there is no upfront cost to the city. All the hardware will be left in place after the test period, and there would be a service fee if the city decides to continue any of the program features.

Kansas is considered a nationwide leader in emergency communication systems. 98 dispatch communication centers are currently connected to a statewide system. Reno County areas previously served as test sites for the NextGen 911 system which uses a digital technology or Internet Protocol (IP)-based 911 system.

The company was selected by the federal government to develop the first nationwide public safety broadband network called FirstNet, and the company is integrating smart technology into this system.

According to the company website, their smart city solutions include digital infrastructure such as lamps transformed into data intelligence network that utilizes insights to improve transportation, parking, air quality, citizen safety, and more. They also offer a software solution for an operations center, smart irrigation systems, etc.