Lack of funds holding back smart cities, says Wi-Sun

Lack of investment is the biggest challenge to smart city development, according to half the people who took part in a poll. Wi-Sun Alliance says a fifth of participants in its survey point to security and privacy issues while 14% see interoperability as a major factor for progressing deployments. Wi-Sun – whose members include Cisco and Toshiba - seeks to accelerate the implementation of open standards-based field area networks and the Internet of Things (IoT). Phil Beecher, CEO of Wi-Sun, says
July 4, 2019 Read time: 2 mins
Lack of investment is the biggest challenge to smart city development, according to half the people who took part in a poll.


Wi-Sun Alliance says a fifth of participants in its survey point to security and privacy issues while 14% see interoperability as a major factor for progressing deployments.

Wi-Sun – whose members include 1028 Cisco and 5392 Toshiba - seeks to accelerate the implementation of open standards-based field area networks and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Phil Beecher, CEO of Wi-Sun, says security and interoperability remain critical factors in any smart city deployment.

“As more IoT devices connect to the network, the opportunity for major disruption through security vulnerabilities is increasing all the time, while greater IT/OT [operational technology] convergence, especially in utilities, will increase the risk of attacks on critical infrastructure,” he adds.

When asked about specific security concerns, respondents point to data privacy as their biggest worry (37%), while attacks on critical infrastructure (28%) and network vulnerabilities (24%) are also a worry. A tenth of the participants cite insecure IoT devices.

Despite this, more than half of the 20,000 respondents expect to see widespread smart city deployments in 10 years or more, while a third predict five to 10 years. Just 15% expect it in less than five years.

Beecher emphasises that smart cities are already here as “smart lighting is being deployed using canopy mesh networks and is already helping to save operational costs through reduced energy consumption and better reliability”.

“These deployments can be used to improve public safety and for additional services such as intelligent transport systems, smart parking and electric vehicle charging stations,” he concludes.

Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Global toll revenues $8.5bn while technology ‘battles’ continue
    April 9, 2014
    ABI Research’s Dominique Bonte talks to Jason Barnes about trends in tolling and how a wider appreciation of technology options is sorely needed. Global Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) solution revenues will grow to $8.5bn by 2018, with ETC becoming a main source of funding for both Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) and Vehicle-to-X (V2X) cooperative infrastructures, according to a new report from ABI Research (Chart 1). But, says the report’s author, ABI Research vice president and practice director Dom
    Read More
  • C-ITS in the EU: ‘It has got a little tribal recently’
    April 16, 2019
    As the C-ITS Delegated Act begins its journey through the European policy maze, Adam Hill looks at who is expecting what from this proposed framework for connected vehicles – and why some people are insisting that the lawmakers are already getting things wrong
    Read More
  • Shock therapy: jolt for EV charging needed
    October 2, 2018
    As sales of electric vehicles accelerate, the growth of charging infrastructure is in need of a big boost. Graham Anderson reports on whether Europe is up to it. Utilities, technology companies and vehicle manufacturers are battling to put in place new charging networks for electric vehicles (EVs) across Europe in response to a predicted dramatic surge in demand. Market experts believe that rapidly falling battery costs – which make up about one third of the costs of an electric car – and growing
    Read More
  • C-ITS in the EU: ‘A little tribal’
    April 1, 2019
    As the C-ITS Delegated Act begins its journey through the European policy maze, Adam Hill looks at who is expecting what from this proposed framework for connected vehicles – and why some people are insisting that the lawmakers are already getting things wrong here are furrowed brows in Brussels and Strasbourg as European Union legislators begin to consider the rules which will underpin future services such as connected vehicles. The idea is to create a regulatory framework to harmonise cooperative ITS
    Read More

Highlighted Content