Smart Cities Might Wait a Bit for 5G; They Have Much Data, Need to Sort It, NATOA Told
Since 5G is nascent and won't be ubiquitous for a while, smart cities deploying advanced technology can't rely solely on that standard for tech advancement, ISP and other executives told local telecom officials. "5G is going to be great, a…
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lot of your cities will start seeing pilots soon" from carriers, said Patti Zullo, Charter Communications' Spectrum Enterprise senior director-smart cities. Until it's the protocol of choice, "5G will not have that much effect in your city," she added Tuesday at NATOA in Tampa. With IoT and cities, "we’re not at a point of mass adoption" yet, said Comcast Vice President-IP Services Patti Loyack. Municipalities don't seek to become smart cities to get more data, Zullo noted. "They have plenty of data," she said. "They need to look at the data and have some 'aha' moments." Smart tech can help localities "tackle major problems," but such deployments haven't advanced fully, said US Ignite Executive Director Bill Wallace. Places deploying it could do real-time diagnostics and have open data, he said. "None of this is easy, and none of this will happen overnight." Moving to such a model is "hard work and it requires leadership to really take a leap of faith," Wallace said. "A lot of them take a while to pay back," he said of such investments, and "for citizens to see the benefit."