BARCELONA, SPAIN--(Marketwired - Feb 25, 2014) - JDSU (NASDAQ: JDSU) and (TSX: JDU): David Heard, president of the Network and Service Enablement business segment at JDSU, today outlined his vision for smart cities and called for greater collaboration across all industries involved in their development. Smart cities use an intelligently-connected infrastructure and real-time analytics to help cities plan and deliver services more effectively.
While Heard notes that some nascent examples of smart cities do exist, there are three key areas that must be addressed before smart cities can gain widespread acceptance. These include developing common technology standards to ensure open/dynamic platforms which keep pace with the changing needs, addressing security and privacy concerns and creating new business models to bring economic benefit.
Heard emphasized that many vertical industries will play an important part in building smart cities and highlighted the critical role that mobile network operators will have in supporting these highly connected environments.
"There has been progress with smart cities globally, we have seen the first efforts of intelligent transport systems, a faster move to machine-to-machine networking and the first instances of smart grid efforts with many organizations contributing to their evolution, but to date efforts have been sporadic and isolated. To expand on the promise of smart cities, we must all work together," said Heard.
Heard believes that many of the technology components are ready with the latest generations of open, scalable and flexible platforms for the fast pace of applications and proliferation of devices and there is a will among many players to develop smart cities for all.
Relentless growth in data consumption among users, as highlighted in JDSU's recent study, indicates a strong desire for new mobile services, and 4G and 5G mobile networks will pave the way for all-important ubiquity. New cloud storage and computing services will also provide the power to connect and process a wealth of new applications. Heard believes it is now incumbent upon technology providers to bring these elements together.
"Devices are making citizens more intelligent and more informed, and new systems and services are beginning to make cities smarter. We must work to bring these two areas together and empower businesses, municipal bodies and other organizations to enhance services for their customers," said Heard.
Collaboration in Three Areas
Collaboration in three key areas will encourage the development of smart cities and include:
- Common technology standards - Creating a common set of standards will accelerate the development of smart cities and will require cooperation among core network equipment manufacturers, mobile network operators, cloud and data center providers, application developers and multiple service providers that support a city's infrastructure.
- Security and privacy policy - In a highly connected environment such as a smart city, security and privacy issues will need to be addressed with a comprehensive policy to ensure that consumers feel comfortable and protected.
- New business models - There are already some steps being taken to explore new business models by leading operators, and research has shown that a significant revenue opportunity exists through Location Insight Services to further advance these business models and include more stakeholders
"JDSU is already working on projects with standards bodies, leading operators and vendors around the world. The time is now for everyone involved to collaborate on these challenges and make smart cities a reality. It will prove a great innovation driver and will undoubtedly change the way we live our lives," Heard concluded.
David Heard will present his views in the "Smart Cities: Smarter Living" during a panel session at Mobile World Congress on Tuesday, February 25, at 2pm in Hall 4, Auditorium 2. JDSU is also exhibiting at the event from February 24-27, and can be found in Hall 6, Stand I37.
About JDSU
JDSU (NASDAQ: JDSU) and (TSX: JDU) innovates and collaborates with customers to build and operate the highest-performing and highest-value networks in the world. Our diverse technology portfolio also fights counterfeiting and enables high-powered commercial lasers for a range of applications. Learn more about JDSU at www.jdsu.com and follow us on JDSU Perspectives, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.