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Telecommunications and wireless networking specialist Gowex and networking giant Cisco announced that the two companies would promote a comprehensive smart WiFi connectivity solution for cities around the world.
As part of the agreement, Gowex will become a Cisco Smart+Connected Communities (S+CC) global strategic partner.
Through the partnership, Gowex will attempt to widen its global presence in vertical markets, including retail, sports and entertainment.
“More than 50 percent of people live in urban areas today, and Smart Cities worldwide are competing for sustainable, economic and social urban services now as their populations rise rapidly,” Wim Elfrink, Cisco’s executive vice presidnet of industry solutions and chief globalization officer, said in a statement. “Cisco’s strategic relationship with Gowex creates a powerful framework for an end-to-end, Internet of everything solution for urban services. The combination of proven network infrastructure and critical applications not only can optimize all types of urban services but also provide citizens with a better, more connected quality of life.”
The first Smart Cities project under the new collaboration is being deployed at Dubai Airport Freezone Authority (DAFZA).
For this project, Cisco has provided the infrastructure to provide machine to machine (M2M) communications and smart services to its citizens and workers.
Gowex’s model of monetization is based on multi-year commercial exploitation contracts, with a revenue income resulting from hosting services such as the geo-located advertising platform, the roaming and offloading platform and the Wireless Smart Cities platform.
“We are pleased to announce Cisco’s participation in the Gowex project, which will boost the company towards its goal of bringing a free and smart WiFi connection to 600 cities by 2018. We will position ourselves together as a global Internet reference for cities wishing to offer free WiFi connection and smart services to its citizens and visitors,” Jenaro García, Gowex CEO, said in a statement. “This collaborative approach will significantly increase Gowex’s current pipeline of city projects in different stages of negotiation, which is almost double since 2013.”
The hope is that this model can then help influence the way cities enable WiFi and Internet of things (IoT) solutions through various S+CC deployments, such as smart transport and parking, urban safety, traffic management and smart tourism.
The technology and services revenue associated with IoT is expected to expand from $4.8 trillion in 2012 to $7.3 trillion by 2017 at an 8.8 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), with the greatest opportunity initially in the consumer, discrete manufacturing and government vertical industries, according to a report from IT research firm Gartner.