Nokia forms smart city alliance with Tianfu New Area

Nokia has signed an agreement with the Tianfu New Area Chengdu Administrative Committee to collaborate on digital city development.

Under the agreement, both parties will collaborate on the construction of a data center and related telecoms infrastructure, deploy an IoT trial network in the city and jointly incubate IoT applications and devices.

The partnership will also involve the deployment of an end-to-end optical network in the Tianfu New Area of Chengdu – one of the three most populous cities in Western China with an urban population of over 10.1 million.

“The TianFu New Area development project presents an exciting opportunity to build a smart city – or actually a smart region – from the ground up,” Nokia president of Greater China Mike Wang said.

“The communications network will serve as the brain and nervous system of the smart city, and we welcome the opportunity to apply Nokia’s technology and know-how to the challenge of building the digital infrastructure that will support this groundbreaking effort.”

Nokia will be following its Smart City Playbook strategy for the project. This strategy was launched in late 2016 and outlines best practices for smart cities.

The agreement also marks a key development in Nokia’s efforts to expand its customer base outside of the traditional telecoms sphere.

The Tianfu New Area modernization project was launched in late 2011. It covers three cities, seven counties and 37 towns and villages.