The future of IIoT:

Smart city, utility and

telecom convergence

JUNE 2016
OCTOBER 2016

Report Sponsor:
 FEATURE REPORT
Executive Summary
This report provides a 360-degree view of the 5G, Industrial In-
ternet of Things (IIoT), and smart city ecosystem. To build this
report, we completed an online sur vey comprised of partici-
pants from what we consider to be the three main stakehold-
ers, utilities (n=80), telecom (n=106), and government (n=30).
Respondent demographics include:
• Telecommunications representatives made up 48% of the
sur vey respondents, while utilities and government repre-
sentatives made up 38% and 14%, respectively. (Figure 1)
• Approximately 81% of all respondents’ organization head-
quarters were located in North America. The remainders
were located in Central or South America (10%), EMEA
(6%), and APAC (3%). (Figure 1)
• Individuals who represented organizations with an annual
revenue of $1 billion or more made up approximately 35%
of the sur vey participants.
• Approximately 36% of sur vey respondents held a job
responsibility at the director level or above.
4+10+3848 81+10+63
Figure 1: Survey Demographics
State or Federal Gov.
4%
Local or
Municipal
Gov. 10%
Telecommunications
48%
Utility
38%
2
The Smart City Ecosystem
• 5G, or 5th generation networks, are the next generation
of communications technology that will enable connected
devices to communicate faster, with more flexibility and
programmability, while simultaneously using fewer resourc-
es than ever before.
• The industrial devices of the future—autonomous vehicles,
smart meters, electronic shelf labels, smart grids and oth-
er connected assets and devices—comprise what is known
as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). These types of
assets rely on an unparalleled level of machine-to-machine
communication and connectivity that take real-time data
analysis and processing capabilities to the next level.
• Smart cities will enable us to unify 5G, IIoT, and other
key technologies. They offer interoperability for devices,
increased functionality, efficiency, and a seamless experi-
ence, all while maintaining security and safety for citizens
and industr y.
APAC 3%
EMEA
6%
Central or
South America
10%
North America
81%

Trends
• The sur vey revealed that 96% of utility respondents agree
that smart cities are an important tech trend, and 87%
believe smart cities are critical to their organization’s
future success. Although they still agreed, these metrics
were lower for government and telecom representatives.
• Overall, both government and telecom respondents
agreed that 5G and IIoT are overhyped, but utility
respondents did not.
• 93% of the government respondents and 75% of utility
respondents said their organization is already working on
smart cities in some way.
• Government organizations appear to be focusing their cur-
rent efforts primarily on EV charging infrastructure (29%),
micro or nanogrids (22%), and renewable and distributed
energy resources (20%).
• Utilities are focused on developing renewable energy
(70%), including both large and small scale generation
distributed and renewable energy; building distributed
energy resources (61%), like batter y storage and rooftop
solar; and smart grids (55%).
• On a scale of 1- 5—where 1 = no role and 5 = a significant
role—respondents ranked wired communication the high-
est (4.0/5.0), followed by wireless sensors (3.9/5.0), and
5G (3.8/5.0) as key components for smart city efforts.
• Sur vey respondents feel that government entities, at both
the state (50%) and municipal (48%) level, and technolo-
gy providers (47%), will play the largest roles in making
smart cities a reality.
• Technology providers and telecommunication providers are
the top two groups needed to make 5G and IIoT a reality.
• Utilities (46%) selected ensuring future energy demand
is met as the top smart city benefit; government officials
(46%) selected increased asset life as the top smart city
benefit; while telecommunications providers (42%) select-
ed safety/sur veillance as the top smart city benefit.
• Looking at the impacts of 5G and IIoT, healthcare (42%),
smart cities (42%), connected homes (38%), and smart
buildings (38%), are the verticals destined for disruption.
FEATURE REPORT
• Connectivity technology (41%), technology (e.g. batter y
life, cost) (33%), and standards (33%), are the top three
areas holding back deployment of 5G and the IIoT.
Recommendations
Formulate a clear political agenda. A project implementing new
technologies requires clear political will and strong support from
both local government and city administration. Cities, utilities
and telecom providers need to find ways to make it easier to
deploy innovative approaches for smart city communications.
Create special smart city consortiums. Create a specific
decision-making entity of government officials, transport and
utility providers, key decision makers, and thought leaders to
help drive change.
Bundle responsibilities. Smart-city projects require involvement
from numerous departments of the city administration, local
companies, and organizations. Cities need to help solution
providers by mapping these partnerships, defining roles and
responsibilities, and ser ving as central points of access for
negotiation and information.
Engage citizens and local businesses. Smart cities projects
should include citizens, business, and academia to help form a vi-
sion of how cities will benefit from smart city solutions. Relevant
departments and regulators should commit to this vision and
deployment roadmap. This would give clarity on what is expected
and help address the current fragmentation of the market.
Focus on trials. Large-scale trials of whole systems should be
implemented, with a focus on business models and deployment,
rather than just technology. The tipping point can be the first
application, and organizations should focus on the business
value of the application and ensure that the infrastructure put
in is justified as the easiest way of launching that application.
One project can justify infrastructure that can then help with
launching future projects more easily.
Design for flexibility. Organizations should consider how their
technology investments can adapt for the future and evolving
use cases.
3
 FEATURE REPORT

Introduction • What sectors may be disrupted by Smart cities Are All About Leveraging the
Networked devices are at the heart emerging technologies? 
 Right Connections
of building smarter cities. Connecting A recent report by Cisco and DHL
a smart phone to the Internet is one Smart cities, IIoT, and 5G…Their announced that there will be more
thing, but connecting an industrial Definitions and Relationships than 50 billion connected devices by
asset—like a transformer or a stop Today cities across the United 2020. The proliferation of connected
light—is another. The Industrial In- States are witnessing astonishing devices will give way to a myriad
ternet of Things (IIoT) and the con- population growth. By 2050, the of new choices and opportunities
nection among industrial devices are Organisation for Economic Co-op- for manufacturing, transportation,
critical to making smart cities a real- eration and Development (OECD) healthcare, utilities, retail, security,
ity, but connecting industrial assets estimates that 70% of the world’s and just about every other industry.
is complex when dealing with mul- population will live in an urban The industrial devices of the future—
tiple industries, standards, protocols environment. With the massive autonomous vehicles, smart meters,
and interests. It takes more than the influx of people, comes a host of electronic shelf labels, smart grids
convergence of technologies; it takes new challenges which include the and other connected assets—com-
the convergence of many stakehold- need to: prise what is known as the Industrial
ers, including telecommunications, • Rethink energy consumption Internet of Things (IIoT).
utilities, government, and technolo- • Bolster wireless and wired These types of assets rely on an
gy providers. This research provides connectivity unparalleled level of machine-to-ma-
a 360-degree view of this ecosystem, • Enhance public safety chine communication and connec-
and addresses: • Improve healthcare tivity that take real-time data pro-
• The future of IIoT and smart cit- • Increase operational efficiency cessing and analysis capabilities to
ies—what does it look like? 
 • More effectively manage our re- the next level. IIoT technologies will
• What are communities doing to- sources to promote sustainability require not only high speeds for data
day with their IIoT and smart and savings delivery, but also low latency among
city efforts? 
 Solutions to many of these chal- connected devices. Combined, low
• Explore next-generation IIoT lenges are underway today, but smart latency and high transfer rates will
technologies, particularly 5G 
 cities will enable us to unify them to ensure higher levels of reliability
• Who are the key stakeholders form a cohesive and dynamic envi- and accuracy through reduced delay
needed to make IIoT a reality for ronment. Smart cities offer interop- among the sending and receiving
building smarter cities?
 erability, increased functionality, ends of connections.
• What are some of the challenges and a seamless experience, all while A key enabler of IIoT technologies
and opportunities of bringing maintaining security and safety for will be 5G, or 5th generation com-
these stakeholders together? citizens and industry. munications network technology,

4

which is a ubiquitous solution to
enable business and connected de-
vices to communicate faster, while
simultaneously utilizing less power
and fewer resources than ever be-
fore. Carriers suggest that by 2020, 5G
technology will offer speeds that are
10 to 100 times faster than current 4G
technologies. With speeds that fast,
an entire movie can be downloaded in
a fraction of a second, or divert an au-
tonomous vehicle from a life threat-
ening scenario in a split second. The
immense capacity of the 5G network
will enable it to take on a multitude
of roles that were once too burden-
some for its slower predecessors.
The vision of smart city develop-
ment is to install innovative and
converging technologies such as 5G
and IIoT to create an ecosystem that
will improve our overall day-to-day
experience, and ultimately provide
tangible value to industries and con-
sumers. Below are several key areas
that will generate the most value to
industry through the convergence
of IIoT and 5G in the development of
smart cities:
Track-and-Trace Devices. Busi-
ness asset management involves
tracking a multitude of objects
during day-to-day operations. IIoT
enables objects to be managed more
efficiently through track-and-trace
devices, yielding the object’s location
in high precision at any given time.
For example, a logistics company
might utilize track-and-trace devices
on their shipping containers to en-
sure proper transportation and han-
dling. IIoT will increase efficiency
and transparency between business-
es and their customers.
Predictive Analytics. IIoT opens
a window of opportunity to gain crit-
ical insight into the probability of
events to occur in the future. Asset
health management can save time
and money utilizing for example,
sensors on an electrical transformer
that may track various metrics about
the device’s current state (e.g. tem-
perature, voltages, currents). This is
useful data that organizations can
analyze to predict when the device is
likely to breakdown.
Network Virtualization. When
linking multiple smart city elements
together—including both civilian
applications and IIoT—at some point
there will inherently be a need to
adapt and make changes to models,
data flows, decision making and other
factors that make a smart city func-
tion. 5G deployments will operate on
virtual networks that decouple infra-
structure from digital logic such that
FEATURE REPORT
a carrier can remotely reprogram and
control the network’s characteristics
and the functionality on demand. A
prime demonstration of the value of
virtual networks is to solve the den-
sity issue that results when too many
devices attempt to connect to a single
cellular network in one area during
large events. Rather than physically
replacing or adding infrastructure to
meet new needs, virtual networks can
be programmed to reallocate network
space and make room for additional
connected devices.
Behavioral Tracking. Usage be-
havior tracking utilizes the connect-
edness of IIoT to store vast amounts
of data and subsequently perform
an analysis of the data to identify
trends in the usage or consumption of
a product or service. Take for exam-
ple the analysis of data from a smart
grid, which could yield valuable in-
formation about customers with high
energy usage. When complemented
by an integrated customer service
platform, the system could automati-
cally issue notifications to customers
about targeted energy efficiency pro-
grams that might help reduce their
high energy bills.
Heterogeneous Networks (Het-
Net). An important distinction be-
tween 5G and networks like LTE,
5
 FEATURE REPORT
CDMA, or GSM, is that 5G is not a sin-
gle network but the next generation
of networks—it is actually a flexible
and ubiquitous network of multiple
networks. 5G will include tens if not
hundreds of networks like Sigfox,
LoRa, WiFi, or LiFI that our devices
will nimbly navigate between based
on location and network strength. Ul-
timately, the HetNet will provide us-
ers with the flexibility and enhanced
autonomy that will be required to
support IIoT.
Network Slicing. You can envision
5G networks like data highways. In
the left lane, critical information,
such as an autonomous vehicle’s lo-
cational data, travels at high speeds
over an extremely reliable connec-
tion to stop the car before a fatal ac-
cident. In the far right lane, less crit-
ical Fitbit sleep cycle data is slowly
streamed to your computer from the
night before. Somewhere in between
the outer most lanes are where the
rest of your data—like your emails,
phone calls, text messages, surveil-
lance footage, smart meter data, and
other data types—travel at various
speeds across the net. The advan-
tage of 5G networks is that in real
time, data is sliced and sorted into
its appropriate lane with the flexi-
bility to switch lanes or networks as
6
needed to become more efficient at
transmitting data.
Why Get Connected?
Connecting to the internet enables
IIoT devices to be accessed through
supporting applications from virtual-
ly any device, any location, and at any
time. This enables operators to check
in on their devices in full detail. In
addition, an internet connection pro-
vides the device with real-time data
regarding its location, environment,
and just about anything else you
could think of.
Smart cities Connect More
than Technology
Technology can only take us so far.
To better understand the roles of 5G
and IIoT in the future of smart cities,
we need to understand the organi-
zations that must come together to
bring smart-city concepts to fruition.
Often the conversations around smart
cities center around municipal gov-
ernments, but we’ve found that other
groups need to be considered as well.
In this paper we address telecommu-
nications providers and utilities, as
they will provide much of the foun-
dational communications for smart
cities through IIoT, 5G and smart grid
communications networks. Zpryme
conducted an online survey for these
groups and received feedback from
219 respondents:
• Federal, state and local govern-
ment (n=30)
• Utilities (n=83)
• Telecommunications providers
(n=106)
Government Representatives
Effective governance is a prerequi-
site for the development of smart cit-
ies. In a broad sense governments set
the stage for smart cities by creating
long-term goals with clear objectives
that embrace innovation and pro-
mote sustainability for their commu-
nities. But urban challenges are com-
plex. Government plays a critical role
as a coordinator, founder, and regula-
tor for smart city development. They
bring different stakeholders and
interests together, cultivate a single
platform for collaboration, provide
funding, and ensure that common
standards are met.
Our online survey was completed
by 22 local or municipal government
officials and eight state or federal
government representatives. (Figure
2) These individuals were primarily
located in North America. (Figure 3)
This surveyed group was comprised
of 53% managers or professional staff
 FEATURE REPORT

and 27% at the director level or above.
(Figure 4) Over half of our respon-
dents worked for a government that
had $500 million or more in annual
revenue. (Figure 5)
Utility Representatives
Utilities and cities are changing in
similar ways; they are quickly moving
from centralized top-down structures
to distributed horizontal structures,
and with that comes the opportunity
for collaboration. In many ways, the
goals of the utilities and governments
overlap. Utilities are more prevalent-
ly refining their role and adopting

73+27 73+17+10
Government Demographics by the Numbers

Figure 2: Organization Type Figure 3: Headquarters Location

EMEA
10%
State or
Federal
27% Central or
South America
17%

Local or
Municipal North America
73% 73%

3+7+10172330 20+33+2720
Figure 4: Functional Area of Expertise Figure 5: Organization Annual Revenue
Administrative
3%
Other
7%
$1B+
Under $100M
Manager Executive 20%
20%
30% 10%

IT/Software
10%
100M - $499M
27% $500M - $999M
Professional Director 33%
Staff 17%
23%

7
 FEATURE REPORT

new models that focus on upgrading
infrastructure and promoting energy
efficiency, rather than building new
generation. By doing so, they are es-
sentially laying the foundations that
will enable smart cities to flourish.
We had 83 survey participants from
the utilities sector, and most for a
North American organization (87%).
(Figure 6) In terms of size, nearly
half of utility respondents worked
for an organization with an annual
revenue of $1 billion or more. (Figure
7) We had a good mix of job levels
with 70% of our utility respondents
in the realm of managers or profes-
sional staff, and 22% at the director
level or above. (Figure 8)

87+5+3
Utility Demographics by the Numbers

Figure 6: Headquarters Location

EMEA 3% APAC 5%
Central or South
America 5%

North America
87%

44+26+1911 1+6+7163436
Figure 7: Organization Annual Revenue Figure 8: Functional Area of Expertise
Other 1% Executive 6%

Under
$100M IT/
11% Software
Professional 7%

$1B+ Staff
36% Director
$100M - $499M 44%
16%
19%

$500M - $999M
Manager
26%
34%

8
 FEATURE REPORT

Telecommunication Providers
Communication among connected
devices—including machine-to-ma-
chine and machine-to-human—is the
most valuable and inherently critical
piece of developing smart cities. It is
the role of the telecommunications
providers to facilitate this connection,
making it possible to share data seam-
lessly and efficiently.
Telecommunications providers
made up the largest responding group
of our survey with 106 participants.
Of these 106 individuals, 83% worked
for an organization based in North
America. (Figure 9) A little over half
of these organizations grossed $100
million to $999 million in annual reve-
nue, while 32% generated $ 1 billion or
more. (Figure 10) Approximately 58%
of our telecom provider survey partic-
ipants held a manager or professional
staff role, and 27% held the title direc-
tor or above. (Figure11)

2+6+983
Telecommunication Providers by the Numbers

Figure 9: Headquarters Location

APAC 2% EMEA 6%
Central
or South
America
9%

North America
83%

11+28+2932 3+4+15162830
Figure 10: Organization Annual Revenue Figure 11: Functional Area of Expertise
Administrative Executive 4%
3% Other 4%
Under
$100M
11%
$1B+ Manager
32% 30% IT/
Software
$500M - $999M 15%
28%

Director
Professional 16%
$100M - $499M
29% Staff
28%

9
 FEATURE REPORT
STUDY ANALYSIS
Key Stakeholder Views of Technology
With all of the discussion around
smart cities, 5G and IIoT, we were
excited to see how our key study
groups viewed the overall progress
towards smarter and more connected
communities. We queried our survey
participants about the benefits of
smart cities, their views of the tech-
nology, and about how critical these
concepts are to future success.
Smart City Benefits
There are many hot areas for smart
city technology, and certainly many
Figure 12: Top Smart City Benefits
Ensuring Future Energy Demand is Met
Increased Asset Life
Analytics-based Decision Making
Safety/Surveillance
Improved Visibility and Control
Citizen Choice & Engagement
0%
Note: Percent of respondents placing a benefit in their top three benefits
10
verticals will see positive impacts
as they undergo digitalization. We
asked our survey participants to
rank what they thought to be the top
smart city benefits. Although there
are many areas where the three ma-
jor stakeholder’s goals align, there
are certainly areas where they don’t.
The three groups will inherently
realize different benefits based on
their goals and use cases so it comes
as no surprise that each sector had a
different top benefit.
Utilities selected ensuring future
energy demand is met (46%) as the
top smart city benefit. With growing
23%
46%
32%
24%
28%
19%
35%
36%
18%
25%
17%
26%
20%
14%
13% 25%
environmental concerns, the poten-
tial for a carbon tax, an increase in
the number of prosumers, and aging
physical infrastructure, smart cities
will give utilities a breath of fresh air
and ultimately enable them to con-
tinue to maintain safe and reliable
power for generations to come. Also
concerned with aging infrastructure,
government officials (46%) selected
increased asset life as the top smart
city benefit, while telecommunica-
tions providers (42%) selected safety/
surveillance as the top smart city
benefit. (Figure 12) By combining
a variety of sources, smart cities
46%
42%
Telecom
31%
Utilities
32% Government
38%

offer powerful analytics tools that
can digest large sets of information
and provide key insights to improve
public safety while simultaneously
tackling crime.
The Importance of Smart cities
Approximately 96% of utility re-
spondents agree that smart cities
are an important tech trend, and 87%
believe smart cities are critical to
their organization’s future success.
However, only 66% of telecom provid-
ers agree that smart cities are an im-
portant tech trend and 85% agree that
smart cities are critical to their orga-
nization’s future success. (Figure 13)
These metrics appeared lower for gov-
ernment representatives, as only 64%
of the respondents agree smart cities
Figure 13: Respondents that Agree with the
Importance of Smart Cities
Smart cities are an important technology trend
Smart cities are critical to my organization’s future success
Utilities
Telecom
Gov.
0% 25%
are an important tech trend and 76%
agree that it is critical to their organi-
zation’s future success. (Figure 13)
These numbers indicate that util-
ities recognize the importance of
smart city efforts, but that there is
some dissonance of opinion among
telecom and government. It is some-
what surprising that utilities would
receive smart cities more positively
than telecom providers, given that
smart cities can unlock huge oppor-
tunities to deliver massive commu-
nication networks. Since 18% of gov-
ernment officials and 16% of telecom
representatives neither agreed nor
disagreed that smart cities are criti-
cal to their organization’s future suc-
cess, it could be that they simply have
not decided the importance of smart
90%
68%
96%
87%
45%
66%
85%
23%
64%
76%
0%
50% 75% 100%
FEATURE REPORT
cities or possibly they haven’t bought
into the vision yet.
At the same time, there is clearly sig-
nificant excitement around smart cit-
ies at the moment, and things are just
heating up. Results from our survey
show that utility respondents are split
nearly 50/50 (49%) on whether smart
cities have been overhyped, while
84% of government officials agree
that smart cities are an overhyped
concept, and about 64% of telecom of-
ficials agree about the hype. (Figure
14) Although most of the large play-
ers in the industry realize the value
of smart cities and have already set
up smart city-focused teams, many of
our respondents fall into a group that
is familiar with the rollout speed of
technology, up and down cycles, and
Figure 14: YES, Smart Cities
are Overhyped!
84%
64%
49%
Gov. Telecom Utilities
11
 FEATURE REPORT

system capabilities that lead them to and what drives them to invest; deployment of these projects, not
take a more conservative view. now let’s explore their deployment deploying the projects themselves.
stage for government organiza-
The Importance of 5G and IIoT tions and utilities. We did not ask Current Smart City Efforts
While most of our respondents telecom carriers about their smart Even though they have their
agreed that 5G and IIoT are import- city deployment because they doubts, our survey results show that
ant tech trends, they are clearly would primarily be supporting the 93% of government respondents said
buzzwords that have created a lot of
hype in the industry. Interestingly, Figure 15: Respondents that Agree about the Overhype of 5G and IIoT
the majority of both government and IIoT is an overhyped concept
telecom respondents believe that 5G 5G is an overhyped concept
and the IIoT are overhyped (Figure
50%
15), but utilities do not. It may be that Utilities
utilities are already using these tech- 39%

nologies and have been able to realize

56%
their value more easily. Telecom
61%
One use case that has been ad-
dressed by many utilities is capturing 83%
unknown system losses through in- Gov.
80%
stalling new sensor devices, a prime
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
example of the benefits of IIoT. In
fact, 95% of utility respondents feel
that the IIoT is critical to smart cities’
Figure 16: Respondents that Agree about the Importance of Technology
future success. (Figure 16) Telecom
IIoT is critical to smart cities’ future success
providers and government respon- 5G is critical to smart cities’ future success
dents also agree that 5G and IIoT are
critical pieces of developing smart 95%
Utilities
cities, but to a lesser degree than util- 91%

ity respondents; which again displays

80%
conservative views on the behalf of Telecom
telecom and government respondents. 80%

74%
Smart City Deployment Gov.
76%
We’ve covered how our respon-
dents are embracing these topics 0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

12
 FEATURE REPORT

their organization is already working
on smart cities in some way. Howev-
er, where they are exactly with their
deployments shows high levels of
variability. (Figure 17) Many are still
in the early stages of planning, inves-
tigation or approving budgets, while
some are deploying pilots or even
multiple applications simultaneously.
On the utility side, smart city efforts
appear to be spread out across the ear-
ly stages. (Figure 18) We see the largest
number of organizations (37%) still in
the planning or investigatory stages,
and some deploying projects (22%),
while 25% say they have no plans. We
consider smart grid technologies to be
a part of broader smart city efforts,
but have found that many utilities do
not view their smart grid efforts as
contributing to a smart city directly. If
utilities included smart grid as smart
city technologies, we’d expect the
number who selected no plans to be
much lower. Smart city technologies
are underway at utilities, but many
do not view smart grid technologies
through the smart city lens.
Status of Smart cities Initiatives
So it seems that there are some
organizations moving forward
with smart cities initiatives, but
we haven’t talked specifics yet as
to what exactly they’re working on.
Government organizations appear
to be focusing their current efforts
primarily on:
• EV charging infrastructure (29%)
• Micro or nanogrids (22%)
• Renewable and distributed energy
resources (20%)
Over the next three years the top

25+25+22217 37+25+221141
Figure 17: Smart City Deployment - Figure 18: Smart City Deployment -
Government Utilities

Large Scale Approving Budgets

Deployment 4% 1%
No
Plans
Deploying
7% Multiple
Planning/
Investigatory Applications Planning/
Deploying 11%
Multiple Stage Investigatory
Applications 25% Stage
21% 37%
Pilot
Deployment
22%
Pilot
Approving Deployment
Budgets 25%
22% No Plans
(Large Scale 25%
Deployment 0%)

13
 FEATURE REPORT

ranking efforts will be safe city ini- (70%), including both large and and communications
tiatives (46%), and distributed en- small scale generation distribut- It should also be noted that util-
ergy resources (40%). Figure 19 pro- ed and renewable energy ities are highly active in the inte-
vides more details about government • Building distributed energy re- gration of EVs and data analytics
organization’s plans, and which tech- sources (61%), like battery storage (47%). On the three-year horizon,
nologies are moving forward. and rooftop solar utilities will still be focused on data,
Currently, utilities’ smart cities ef- • Deploying smart grids (55%) including data analytics (34%), and
forts are most focused on: which include the aforemen- open data and transparency (33%).
• Developing renewable energy tioned items plus data analytics (Figure 20)

Figure 19: Government Organizations’ Future Smart City Plans

Underway Next 3 years 3+ years No plans

EV charging infrastructure 29% 17% 25% 29%

Renewable energy 20% 28% 20% 32%
Microgrids/nanogrids 22% 39% 22% 17%
Distributed energy resources 20% 40% 12% 28%
Smart grid (electric) 17% 13% 8% 63%
Smart street lights 15% 19% 23% 42%
Electric vehicles (EV) 13% 13% 29% 46%
Open data and transparency 13% 42% 29% 17%
Fiber to the home 8% 20% 48% 24%
Smart transportation 8% 25% 46% 21%

Figure 20: Utilities’ Future Smart City Plans

Underway Next 3 years 3+ years No plans

Renewable energy 70% 12% 11% 8%

Distributed energy resources 61% 17% 13% 8%
Smart grid (electric) 55% 17% 22% 5%
Electric vehicles (EV) 47% 18% 13% 21%
Data analytics 47% 34% 15% 4%
EV charging infrastructure 47% 27% 13% 13%
Open data and transparency 31% 33% 15% 21%
Microgrids/nanogrids 27% 32% 15% 27%
E-government initiatives 27% 22% 15% 37%
Sustainability plan (preferably regional level) 23% 27% 22% 28%

14

Roles of Technology
Connecting more than 50 billion
devices by 2020 will be no small feat
for technology developers, although
there seems to be a multitude of dif-
ferent technologies that will lend a
hand in making smart cities a reality.
Advanced communication networks
like 4G and 5G, sensor technology—
both wired and wireless—and smart
connected assets that make up IIoT
are certainly the essential parts. We
asked our survey participants to rank
the roles essential smart city tech-
nologies on a scale of 1 – 5, where 1
represents no role and 5 means a sig-
nificant role. Figure 21 shows how our
survey participants responded for
the three-year horizon.
Figure 21: Roles of Technology in Smart City Developments
Wired
Communication
Networks
Wireless
Sensors
5G
4G
IIoT
Wired
Sensors
1 2
No Role
It is clear that wireless technology
will be a major part of smart cities,
but our survey respondents actually
ranked the role of wired communi-
cation networks in the next three
years with the highest overall score
of 4.0 out of 5.0. Historically, hard-
wired networks have offered more
security, higher speeds, and im-
proved dependability than wireless
networks, and we don’t see them go-
ing away anytime in the foreseeable
future. Aside from the aforemen-
tioned benefits of wired technology
having the greatest utility for big
businesses, wired technology like
fiber is also expected to serve as the
backbone for 5G wireless transmis-
sion for the consumer.
4.0
3.9
3.8
3.7
3.7
3.2
3 4 5 for another 20 years.
Significant
Role
FEATURE REPORT
Sensor technologies like smart
streetlights, smart meters, wear-
ables, track and trace sensors and
other devices, both wired and wire-
less, are central to the functionality
of smart cities. Our respondents felt
that wireless sensors will play the
larger role in the development of
smart cities and gave them the sec-
ond highest rating overall, 3.9 out
of 5.0. While it seems that wireless
technologies are a key enabler for
smart cities, our respondents still
feel that wired sensors will play
some roll too, giving them a rating
of 3.2 out of 5.0.
Each generation of network tech-
nology offers substantial benefits
over its predecessors including
speed, bandwidth, intelligence,
and programmability. Look for 5G
and generations beyond to cover
the advanced needs of smart city
applications and IIoT devices. Our
respondents indicated that 5G and
4G will play a similar role for smart
cities in the three-year horizon
giving them ratings of 3.8 and 3.7,
respectively. Although we see 5G
development underway today, it is
important to note that 3G still has
about 10 years of remaining shelf
life and 4G will probably be around
15
 FEATURE REPORT

Roles of organizations Smart cities 47% of respondents selected tech-

We’ve looked at what organizations
are doing with technology today and
the various roles that technologies
will play in the future; the last part
completes the puzzle by piecing to-
gether the roles of the organizations
that will be involved in these technol-
ogies going forward. Here we ask our
survey participants from the three
key stakeholders, telecommunica-
tions, utilities, and governments to
select all of the organizations that are
critical to the future of smart cities,
5G and IIoT.
Looking at how our survey partici-
pants responded about smart cities,
(Figure 22) many feel that govern-
ment organizations—at both the state
and municipal level—will play the
largest role in making smart cities a
reality. Government organizations
are certainly foundational to smart
city development because they are
creating incentives for new projects,
developing standardization, and driv-
ing the industry forward through leg-
islative and even regulatory require-
ments. After government entities,
nology providers as part of the most
critical organizations needed to make
smart cities a reality, which reflects
the disparity between the technology
needs of tomorrow’s applications and
today’s existing solutions.
5G and IIoT
Looking specifically at 5G and IIoT
we see that respondents’ views are on
trend with smart cities and the need
for further development of technol-
ogy. Technology providers ranked
in the top two most critical interest

Figure 22: Organizations Critical to Make Smart Cities a Reality

50%
50%

48%
48%

47%

46%

44% 44%
44%

42%
State Municipalities Technology Telecom- Utilities
Government Providers munications
Providers

16
 FEATURE REPORT

groups (Figure 23) in the develop-
ment for both 5G and IIoT with 48%
and 51%, respectively. Technology
providers like Cisco, Dell, and Am-
azon are paving the way for 5G and
IIoT, with applications like back-end
storage and analytics platforms to
manage IIoT data, and real-time data
streaming to enable things like au-
tonomous vehicles, but they still have
a long way to go.
It comes as no surprise that respon-
dents (66%) indicated that telecom-
munications providers will play the
leading role in making 5G a reality,
but their role in IIoT is important as
well. Approximately 43% of our re-
spondents indicated that telecommu-
nications providers will be critical in
making IIoT a reality. As we’ve men-
tioned before, telecommunications
providers are responsible for facili-
tating the machine-to-machine and
machine-to-human connections criti-
cal to the functionality of IIoT.
Universities and research groups are
also common to both IIoT and 5G as a
critical group to making these tech-
nologies a reality. Universities and re-
search groups provide supplementary
development that can take a deep dive
into the specifics of these technolo-
gies and help to carve out new oppor-
tunities and applications.
Disruption Potential of IIoT and 5G
To get a better idea of which verti-
cals will see the biggest impacts from
the emergence of new IIoT and 5G
technologies, our survey asked tele-
com professionals what they thought
would see the largest disruption.
Healthcare (42%) and smart cities
(42%) were tied as the top two indus-
try verticals destined for disruption,
followed by connected homes (38%)
and smart buildings (38%). (Figure 24)
When we look at the array of ap-
plications for IIoT and 5G, the key
element for the healthcare industry
is really offering increased flexibly
with patient monitoring. Whether
it is monitoring glucose levels in the
blood, fetal monitors, electrocardio-
grams, or temperature monitors, the
ability to collect and track patient
healthcare information is vital to pa-
tient treatment. While the futuristic
vision of a city that looks like some-
thing out of the classic TV show, The
Jetsons, isn’t quite a reality yet, we
are seeing disruption in this vertical
that puts IIoT and 5G at the epicenter.

Figure 23: Organizations Critical to Make 5G and IIoT a Reality

70%
66% 5G 55% IIoT
51%

53% 43%
48% 53% 38%
37%
32%
37%
35%
32% 32%
28%

18%
18%

0%
Telecom- Technology Regulatory Federal Universities 0% Technology Telecom- Utilities Universities State
munications Providers Agencies Government and Research Providers munications and Research Government
Providers Providers
Note: Percent of all respondents that selected a particular group

17
 Featured Companies
FEATURE REPORT

Figure 24: Top Industry Verticals Destined for Disruption respondents, some of the key chal-
lenges they are facing include:
Healthcare 42%
Smart Cities 42% • Spectral harmonization or
Connected Homes 38% ensuring the uniform allocation
Connected, Smart Buildings 38%
of radio frequency bands across
Smart Utilities 32%
Autonomous Vehicles/Connected Cars 29% entire regions.
Smart Factories 25% • Working with dated technology
Energy (e.g. oil and gas, pipelines) 13% • Bridging the gaps between
Note: Percent of respondents placing a vertical in their top three
departmental siloes

Figure 25: Top Areas Holding Back Deployment of 5G and IIoT
Connectivity Technology
Technology (e.g. battery life, cost)
Standards
Privacy/Security
Policy
Analytics
Business Case
Note: Percent of respondents placing an area in their top three
When you consider all of the vari-
ous equipment and devices found in
homes and buildings— HVAC, lighting,
security, lifts, AV, communications,
parking, utility meters, vending ma-
chines, energy management, water
management, landscaping/irriga-
tion—connected homes and buildings
have massive potential to see disrup-
tion in the next 10 years. Our survey
results (Figure 24) show that respon-
dents feel that there are actually sev-
eral other verticals that will experi-
ence disruption too.
Top Areas Holding Back Deployment
Although many verticals are seeing
33%
30%
23%
21%
19%
12%
good pilots, and some applications
have already made it to production
grade, IIoT and 5G are generally not
the operational guts of our cities yet.
When we look at what our survey
participants selected as the key areas
holding back the deployment of IIoT
and 5G applications (Figure 25) we
can start to identify the drivers of
the tipping point.
Our respondents selected connec-
tivity technology (41%), technology
(e.g. battery life, cost) (33%), and
standards (33%), as the top three
areas holding back deployment of
5G and IIoT.
According to our
• An evolving government ecosystem
• A large variety in use cases and
41%
city objectives
The readiness of technology for
smart city deployments is a serious
concern as many telecom represen-
tatives have reported issues with,
battery life, network speeds, security,
human intervention versus nonhu-
man intervention, data collection,
analysis, and network layering.
Conclusion
There is significant excitement and
potential around smart cities—and it
is just getting started. Although there
are many areas where the three ma-
jor stakeholder’s goals align, there are
certainly areas where they don’t. Al-
though utilities, telecom providers and
cities may ultimately realize different
benefits based on their goals, these
key stakeholders must come togeth-
er to implement the communications
networks and infrastructure that are
telecom common to all of their needs.

18
Featured Companies

Nokia
Nokia is a global leader in the technologies that connect people and things.
Powered by the innovation of Bell Labs and Nokia Technologies, the company is
at the forefront of creating and licensing the technologies that are increasingly at
the heart of our connected lives.

With state-of-the-art software, hardware and services for any type of network,
Nokia is uniquely positioned to help communication service providers,
governments, and large enterprises deliver on the promise of 5G, the Cloud and
the Internet of Things. http://nokia.com

19
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