US Ignite announced the expansion of a national network of Smart Gigabit Communities (SGC). Each community joining the network has made a significant commitment toward embracing next-generation smart city and internet technologies to keep pace with the world’s rapidly changing technology and economy. US Ignite spurs the creation of next-generation applications and services that leverage advanced networking technologies to build the foundation for smart communities.
The new SGC communities are:
- Washington, D.C.: The District’s smart community efforts leverage intelligent city infrastructure, including connected devices, sensors, and data analytics to improve the quality of life for residents, enhance economic growth, and address city challenges. Current District smart city initiatives include Smart Waste Management, Movement Analytics, and Water Quality Sensing.
- Albuquerque, New Mexico: The city is building the broadband and digital infrastructure needed for the future. The city’s gigabit network will be the backbone and catalyst to innovate next-generation, gigabit applications. As part of the Albuquerque Rapid Transit project, the city is investing $1 million to bury fiber to offer high speed broadband access to homes and businesses all along the corridor — keystones for innovation and development. Recently, the city launched the initial phase of a project to install LED lighting around Albuquerque, including plans for sensors and cameras in key places for monitoring and data collection.
- Jackson, Tennessee: Jackson has focused efforts on bringing ultra-fast internet speeds to help assure innovation as it relates to the next generation of education, medical care, public safety, and economic development. Jackson Energy Authority, a key partner and fiber pioneer, is dedicated to aligning Jackson’s gigabit infrastructure as a tool, test bed, and accelerator for economic, educational, and community benefit.
- Phoenix, Arizona: As an SGC, The City of Phoenix, in partnership with Cox Communications and the Institute for Digital Progress, is able to provide the best tools to the area’s entrepreneurs to help them build their companies and create real solutions for Phoenix residents, businesses, and the overall community. The community will be launching the third annual Smart City Hack (SCH) in July – the largest civic innovation initiative in the Southwest. This year the challenge is focused on applications relating to transportation, health, education, and sustainability. One winner will be sent to Barcelona to represent the city of Phoenix against entrepreneurs and cities from all over the world at the 2017 Smart City Expo.
- San Diego, California: Last month, Cox Communications and US Ignite announced that the City of San Diego is the newest participant in the US Ignite SGC program. San Diego’s participation in the program will advance innovation, technology and entrepreneurship in San Diego and will further promote collaboration among local government, community leaders and corporate partners. The City aims to create the largest city-based deployment of an IoT platform in the world. Currently, the City is upgrading traffic lights to LED and integrating the traffic light system into a connected digital network.
The SGC program facilitates collaboration among municipalities, network carriers and other corporate partners, nonprofit organizations, and the university research community. Together, these organizations work to develop smart gigabit applications that address local community needs, including education, workforce development, public safety, community health, smart energy, and transportation.
Each SGC will develop two gigabit applications or gigabit services per year that provide advanced technology solutions to issues faced by that community. They also agree to share those applications with the other SGCs.
Gigabit applications take advantage of the 100x increase in internet power that comes from deploying gigabit internet access to homes, small businesses, healthcare facilities, schools, libraries, and museums. Increasingly, cities are installing their own municipal gigabit internet or enticing Cox Communications, Google Fiber, AT&T Gigapower, Comcast Gigabit Internet, Centurylink Gigabit Internet, Verizon FiOS, local utility providers, or other gigabit providers to upgrade their community.
US Ignite will assist each community by providing leadership, ideas, education, a network of SGCs and other resources to enable local innovation ecosystems to support the development and deployment of advanced smart city applications and public services. Each community will share its applications or services with other members of the SGC network. This will enable communities to build on the innovations of the entire network.
Each of these US Ignite communities will implement a low-latency and ultra-fast network with locavore (local or edge cloud) computing and storage capabilities. This combination will support highly interactive and visually immersive experiences not possible on today’s commercial internet. Communities will also receive technical assistance from US Ignite staff and partners in designing and developing applications to take advantage of the new network connections including access to fund accelerators and technical staff.
June 28, 2017
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