AT&T Teams Up With Otis For Smart City Push

Smart cities may have taken a step closer to reality following a deal between AT&T and Otis.

The telecoms giant will look to work with Otis, best known for its work in the elevator and escalator industry, to develop and promote the use of better digital tools and smart, connected machinery in future city services.

This will include elevator, escalator and moving walkway equipment, meaning that offices, travel stations and shopping centres could soon all become a lot smarter.

On the rise

The two companies will now look to work together to create buildings that offer greater energy efficiency alongside seamless security and systems such as elevators that work smoother than ever before.

Otis says that it will use data from two million elevators, carrying over two billion people a day, to gather large amounts of data to identify trends to address future issues and develop new products.

“We strongly believe that a new generation of elevators will be defined by new digital tools that better connect our people with our customers – and our customers with their equipment,” said Otis president Philippe Delpech.

“We’re seeing more global businesses use IoT technologies to take their business to the next level. They’re extracting actionable information from their machines, equipment, factories, fleet vehicles and more,” said Chris Penrose, senior vice president, IoT Solutions, AT&T.

Recent research has suggested that smart cities are set to be a major growth area within the next few years as interest in the technology grows.

Estimates from Gartner predict that 1.6 billion ‘things’ will be connected up to larger smart city infrastructure by the end of next year as the benefits become greater than ever.

A further report from analyst house Juniper predicted that consumer spending on smart homes and their associated products is set to skyrocket and reach $100bn (£65bn) within the next five years, as this growth will push the number of connected appliances in smart homes to over 20 million by 2020.

Among TechWeekEurope readers, 80 percent have either adopted IoT applications or plan to, but home use is outpacing that of the office.

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