Chema Alonso
Chief Data Officer, Telefonica.
SmartSantander, an Internet of Things (IoT) EU project, presented this week its final results after three years of activity. Santander has become the first comprehensive smart city in Europe and an international benchmark in smart city design.
The SmartSantander report, produced by the European Commission (EC), highlighted the management by Telefónica R&D and the coordination work of the University of Cantabria and the Council of Santander, asserting that “the project has successfully achieved all its objectives, even exceeding initial expectations.”
Telefónica has been fully involved with the project and Santander. In addition to coordinating the activity of 25 partner development agencies (24 from Europe and one from Australia), Telefónica, in 2013, created a pioneering Smart Cities Innovation Centre located in Santander, which spearheads innovation in smart cities; also leading the development of the European FI-WARE platform, which facilitates the creation of apps for the Internet of the Future – to be implemented in the most advanced smart cities.
With an €8.67 million budget, SmartSantander rolled out the largest urban infrastructure in the world, capable of serving as a laboratory for scientific experimentation in technologies which will fuel the Internet of the Future. The rolled out urban infrastructure offers a testing ground that the EU has called essential for the following reasons:
- Achieving a leading role in Europe in the IoT technologies
- Provide the scientific community with a unique platform for big scale experimentation and IoT testing under real conditions
The project rolled out over 20,000 devices enabling various applications in areas such as public transport and mobility, traffic, environment, pollution, waste management, noise control, climatology, security, water management and health care. The aim was to create a sustainable, efficient and “green” city, with smart management, making Santander a better place to live.
The project has received numerous Spanish and international awards. In May 2011 it obtained the Future Internet Award at the Future Internet Assembly held in Budapest. It has also received awards from the Ibero-American COMPUTERWORLD&CIO 2012 and the magazine CAPITAL, among others.
And this is just the beginning!
