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America’s fibre broadband city shows London how it’s done

How America’s fibre broadband city shows London how it’s doneSuperfast fibre broadband isn’t just about letting you download tons of films, music and porn at the speed of light. It’s also about reimagining and revolutionising local amenities. 

In Chattanooga, Tennessee in the US, residents’ lives have been changed thanks to a city-wide rollout of 1Gbps superfast broadband.

As well as enjoying much better internet access, locals are benefitting from some next-level city planning.

Read Recombu Digital’s report on The Internet of Things

In the so-called ‘Gig City,’ town planners are able to cut down on traffic jams, thanks to being able to intelligently manage the lights thanks to live traffic flow information.

Individual lamp posts can be dimmed if residents complain of light pollution and local police, who want to better illuminate an area, can crank up the lights at will. Each police car in Chattanooga is equipped with WiFi, providing constant access to the local smart grid.

Deployment of 1Gbps fibre broadband across the city has also seen a large influx of startups flocking to the city and the launch of a ‘GeekMove’ program, where programmers and companies looking to relocate can apply for funding.

While this is all well and good it doesn’t exactly help us here in the UK, you might remember that London’s Greenwich peninsula is to play host to Living PlanIT’s ‘Urban OS’ system of connected sensors.

This video below produced by NextGen Events gives us an idea of what we can expect to see in London and the other connected cities of the future. Perhaps if the Urban OS rolls out to other parts of the city then London will experience a similar creative influx; we’ve already got the Tech City Investment plan set up in Shoreditch and if Tennessee’s Scenic City can do it then we don’t see why London can’t.

Anything to make the Number 19 bus run a little more smoothly in the evenings…

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