A Shared Network to Build Smart Cities

“Smart” has quickly become an everyday word in the vernacular of development. Whether it is Smart Cities, smartphones or smart cars, smart has become the goal of most cities and companies. More than 59.5 percent of Mexico’s population aged six years and older use the internet and more than 57 percent use a smartphone. But how can Mexico get “smart” if the possibilities for technology are developing faster than the country’s capacity to support it?

Telecommunications infrastructure has seen growth in the last few years thanks to the Telecommunications Reform but not enough to keep pace with the quickly evolving industry. “An important challenge Mexico’s cities face in the race to become smart is the quality of the available infrastructure and its functionality,” says Marco Vigueras, Country Senior Officer at Nokia. “Before talking about IoT, Cloud networks and Big Data, we must have the adequate foundational infrastructure to handle these processes.”

According to INEGI, 30 percent of homes in urban areas and only 4 percent in rural areas have access to an internet connection, leaving a major area of improvement for infrastructure development. To improve Mexico’s telecommunications infrastructure, the government launched one of the largest projects of the Peña Nieto administration, the Red Compartida, with the goal of providing 85 percent of the Mexican territory with internet access by 2018.

In November 2016, this project was awarded to the Altán Networks consortium. Nokia has worked with Altán Networks for many years and was chosen to provide its consultancy and technology services to build the network.

The telecommunications giant chose to get involved with the project because it could see the massive potential it offered to the country’s development. “The Shared Network will reduce the number of duplicated elements needed to provide coverage, sharing infrastructure between different companies using one single network,” says Vigueras. “It is a 4G network, it will provide a high speed and it will be adaptable to 5G as soon as this technology is available in the Mexican market.” He believes that one of the main challenges that the project may face is in meeting its completion deadline, but Nokia has made the Shared Network its priority in Mexico.

Vigueras believes that another hurdle that has delayed the development of Smart Cities in Mexico is investment. “The challenge is in identifying who will pay for the required infrastructure,” he says. “In the long run, this will no longer be a hurdle because Smart Cities make smart use of city budgets. There are many costs that can be reduced if we use technology. The problem is getting started.”

For Nokia, becoming involved in infrastructure projects such as the Shared Network is a part of its progression. “We are transitioning toward developing more IoT and Smart City solutions for enterprises,” says Vigueras. “Although they were not our main focus a couple of years ago, these segments represent new opportunities for us to expand. Moving on from our roots in mobile phones, we want to create products that will make communication even more efficient in the future.”

Nokia believes that for cities to thrive, they must get smart, safe and sustainable by investing in shared, secure and scalable infrastructure, also known as the “Six S” strategy.

Ultimately, before a city can begin looking at applications to become a Smart City, it has to ensure that it has shared, secure and scalable infrastructure. This allows cities to minimize costs, keep information safe and ensure that the infrastructure will be able to keep up with the rapid growth of its population base.

Infrastructure is the foundation to the development of any city, but it is not the only element that is needed for a city to flourish. Vigueras says strong technology leadership is critical. “The speed in which these changes are implemented depends greatly on the government and on how it is encouraging this transformation,” he says.