Nokia to partner with Current for smart cities platform in Canada

Dive Brief:

Nokia and Current, a subsidiary of General Electric (GE), will partner to bring GE’s smart cities platform, called CityIQ, to Canadian cities.
Through the partnership, the two companies will repurpose outdoor street lighting to collect data and share insights to cities on Nokia communications networks. Not only will that give cities new information on how infrastructure is being used, but it will also enable app development to address issues like parking, traffic, public safety and air quality monitoring.
Nokia is expanding in Canada, having recently reached a deal with Smart City Capital to leverage a multi-billion dollar fund for smart cities projects.

Dive Insight:

Nokia is positioning itself as a leader in smart cities technology; in addition to the partnership with Smart City Capital, the company has also announced an internet of things (IoT) operations center, blockchain-based data analytics (known as "Sensing as a Service") and a secure mobile virtual network system for public safety agencies. In a statement, Shawn Sparling, head of Canada enterprise sales for Nokia said the partnership would offer Canadian cities “a scalable method to quickly respond to demographic and economic shifts."

"Responsive, flexible technology is key to creating smarter cities while enabling a safer and more sustainable environment," Sparling added.

It’s also set to accelerate a boom of smart city innovation in Canada, especially building on the government’s Smart Cities Challenge, with a grand prize of up to $50 million Canadian dollars ($38.5 million). Twenty finalists for the competition were announced in June, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said the keen interest in the competition shows the need for cities to craft partnerships that find "Innovative new ways to meet the needs of their citizens."

The availability of new data from the Current and Nokia partnership should certainly qualify as such an innovative partnership. CityIQ has created data for a variety of app developers and smart city technology from the system has already been deployed in cities including Atlanta, San Diego and Portland, OR.