Smart cities: Boon, bane or wait and see?
Act Quezon City already planned the establishment of Biztech, the city government said. public services, that the need for quick and precise decision-making demands a high form of intelligence in both the public administrators and the tools they use to manage their respective cities.
5G is just around the corner. The standards for this newest mobile communications device have yet to be settled and its commercial products will come two to three years from now, but the hosannas that it will be the savior of most cities are starting to be proclaimed loud and clear.
Essentially, 5G promises sig-
latency, or quicker response time, a much broader reach and greater data capacity than available on current smartphones. By facilitating the processing of huge amounts of data from various sources and transmitting the outcomes through a digital network of sensors in real-time, 5G technology goes beyond the mundane functionalities of current 4G devices. It will enable the smart city.
One of the simplest ways the smart city can make a difference to ordinary citizens will be to provide information on available parking spaces in the downtown area. Another will be to reduce the bureaucracy
to service a growing population. One scenario envisions cutting down a 600-strong workforce to a 60-person staff to handle the same workload in a centralized facility.
While the future looks bright for smart city and even brighter for 5G, there are critical observations mostly directed at the ICT-enabled smart city.
Large investments will surely have to be made in the transformation journey towards a smart city. In a developing economy like the Philippines, any massive expenditure especially on infrastructure will be seen from the perspective of competing priorities. Does it make sense to put in so much money in an innovative model of development when there’s widespread poverty, more important vital infrastructure that needs to in place, and widening socio-economic disruptions that have to be addressed sooner than later?
There’s also the viewpoint that a smart city will lead to improving the living standards of those who are already better off in life. Won’t the smart city simply magnify the existing social, economic and digital divide that separates the haves and the have-nots?
If it’s a case of building a prototype to be replicated in other areas, will there be time enough to establish a working model that can be duplicated in other places in the face of predicted global devastation wrought by climate change starting 2030? The various literature online