MWC: Connected city debuts

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the GSMA will unveil the Connected City, allowing attendees to experience first-hand the city of the future where everyone and everything can benefit from intelligent wireless connections.

Opening on 25 February, the Connected City will feature a complete urban environment, including a town hall, department store, apartment, electrical store, hotel, cafe and lounge, office, a car showroom and a street. Each area will be filled with new products and experiences showing how a more connected future powered by mobile will improve people’s daily lives across automotive, education, health, homes, retail and more.

Launched with AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, KT, Telenor Connexion and Vodafone, the Connected City expands on the highly popular Connected House concept of previous years. Mobile World Congress attendees will experience how mobile is transforming the way we live, through demonstrations of products such as the connected bike that monitors performance in relation to its environment, remote health monitoring that can link people to healthcare professionals from their own homes, intelligent logistics services that provide more efficient ways of transporting people and goods, smart technology that makes mobile the ‘brains’ of your home, and in-car services that change the way we consume information on the move.

Michael O’Hara, Chief Marketing Officer, GSMA said: “The Connected City demonstrates how mobile is already enhancing businesses and societies around the world. The progress of connected devices and machine-to-machine communications will be hot topics at Mobile World Congress 2013 and the city will inspire all of us, across many industries, to recognise the potential of pervasive mobile connectivity to impact our lives. The possibilities of a truly connected world are limited only by our imagination.””

By 2020, there will be 25 billion connected devices, and at least half will be connected by mobile technology. At the Connected City, visitors can explore how this growth will impact vertical industries and the significance of fostering strategic partnerships to take advantage of this growing market.

The Connected City will also feature technology provided by companies including Accenture, AirPlug, AQ, CUDO, DASAN Networks, Digi, Enswers, Ericsson, FRTek, GES, Hansol Inticube, IBM, Intel, MODACOM, Qualcomm, Samsung, SAP, Teletron and Volvo.

Connected services on show at the Connected City include:

AT&T

Deutsche Telekom

GSMA

KT

Telenor Connexion

Vodafone

Together with its partners Accenture, Digi, Intel and SAP, Vodafone M2M will demonstrate some of its key products and solutions:

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