Cellnex Telecom will be taking part once again at the Smart City Expo World Congress

Cellnex Telecom presents a safety project for manhole covers for essential public senvices, an electric scooter connected to the IoT and Smart cells for urban fixtures

Involvement in the Smart City Expo World Congress 2015

• The services and solutions presented by Cellnex Telecom help to optimise resources, promote environmental sustainability and provide data to improve the operability of urban centres
• Data indicate that 60% and 70% of the global population will live in urban environments by 2020, making the smart transformation of cities towards interconnected models a priority goal in the short term.

Cellnex Telecom will be taking part once again at the Smart City Expo World Congress, the key world event on smart cities, to be held in Barcelona from 17 to 19 November. This is the first time that it will be participating with the name and brand Cellnex Telecom, since the company’s flotation in April of this year. The aim of Europe’s leading independent operator of wireless telecommunications and broadcasting infrastructures is to move forward in transforming urban centres to allow citizens to enjoy more efficient and sustainable public services.

According to data from certain analysts and consultants, 60% and 70% of the global population will live in urban environments by 2020. This fact is a key indicator of how people will change the way they live, work and relate to each other. Cellnex Telecom is aware of this and is developing processes and solutions to harness the potential of the ICTs to monitor and manage public services, something that will help to optimise resources, promote environmental sustainability and provide data to make urban centres more operational.

The proposals and demonstrations of the services that Cellnex will be presenting are to focus on three key aspects: safety, mobility and operational management of cities.

Pilot safety project for manhole and drain covers

Cellnex Telecom has developed an alarm and signalling system specifically for manhole and drain covers installed in the road for access to drains or underground conduits for water, electricity or gas. The pilot project involves installing sensors in these items to prevent and manage any incidents or acts of vandalism that could cause more serious problems in the future, as happened recently with the high-speed train lines in Catalonia.

On that occasion, normal circulation of the trains was interrupted by the intentional cutting of fibre-optical cables along the Barcelona line. The incident affected more than 9,500 travellers and caused significant mobility issues, in addition to the financial cost to the company.

Sensors for monitoring the city’s manhole and drain covers will provide real-time information on the state of each one, making it possible to react quickly if any one of them were to be stolen, broken or suffer any other kind of incident in the area.

Small Cells

What are known as “small cells” are a key link in the medium term for the full roll-out of mobility-based broadband. Ensuring the appropriate density and capillarity of the transmission network so that it can enable real access to broadband content and services simultaneously to users in specific areas with a large concentration of people (shopping malls, stadiums, auditoriums, etc.) is a critical element in terms of both quality of the service provided and even in safety terms.

At the Smart City World Congress, Cellnex Telecom will present an example of integration of a “small cell” in urban fixtures. Cellnex is working hand in hand with mobile telephony operators and administration to analyse the most efficient solutions in terms of roll-out and of any future models for cooperation that could arise.

An electric scooter connected to the Internet of Things

Cellnex Telecom and Scutum have signed a cooperation agreement for technological innovation and business development for electric scooters connected using the Internet of Things, to link these electric vehicles and their dealers in order to improve the service provided to owners. Information can thus be sent concerning the state of battery charge and temperature, the number of cycles or the date of the latest recharge. To further improved safety, it is also possible to capture and send the GPS location if the vehicle is stolen.

The agreement is based on a joint strategy between both companies and aims to connect electric scooters to guarantee correct operation and improve safety by monitoring the vehicle’s critical parameters. Remote access to the scooter’s functional data will also allow the dealer to diagnose the vehicle’s general status and make it easier to provide optimal after-sales service using the data stored.

The Internet of Things represents an opportunity for electric vehicles, paving the way for developing new concepts such as V2V (Vehicle-to-Vehicle) or V2I (Vehicle-to Infrastructure) connectivity to improve safety and efficiency in urban mobility using additional information on the state of roads or traffic information provided by the connectivity service using the cellular network of the Internet of Things.

Smart Brain

Cellnex Telecom will showcase the Smart Brain service, which enables access to urban infrastructures and city data compiled from various sources (general public, social networks, companies, administration). It comprises a modular design IT infrastructure using open standards with an analytical engine that facilitates decision-making and improves the resilience of cities. This platform is used to show a series of cloud applications that guarantee and facilitate the exchange of data that can be utilised simultaneously by various users with different profiles (general public, administration, social interest groups, distributors, developers, etc.). It is therefore an ideal tool for fostering participation and “do-it-yourself” services for the public in general and for improving interaction with the administration and transparency, co-creating services (iCity) adapted to society or improving the day to day lives of members of the public (Social Care, Active tourism, connected car).

Cellnex Telecom

Cellnex Telecom is Europe’s leading independent operator of wireless telecommunications and broadcasting infrastructures.

It offers sites to rent for telecommunications operators and provides the most advanced audiovisual services to national, regional and local broadcasters.

Over the past four years, Cellnex Telecom has made a firm commitment to developing a network of over 15,000 sites and has enjoyed strong growth in the mobile phone towers area through agreements with operators like Telefónica and Yoigo in Spain, the purchase of the Italian company TowerCo in 2014, and the recent acquisition of 7,400 towers in Italy following the agreement with WIND to gain control of Galata.

It also develops solutions in the “smart city” projects field and has rolled out a smart communications network making it possible to connect objects and develop a strong ecosystem for the Internet of Things (IoT) in Spain.

Cellnex Telecom also plays a key role in rolling out telecommunications networks for security and emergency forces.