A successful smart city strategy is crucial in enabling cities to manage rising populations and compete for investment and talent at a national and global level. The challenge is getting the complex ecosystem of players and partners to work well. How can telcos position themselves as strategic partners in this transition, and help enable successful collaborative innovation?
5G. SDN/NFV. Gigabit cable. WiFi. IoT. Spectrum policy. Vendor consolidation. Despite carefully-constructed business cases for future network investment, the goal-posts are always moving, and even the best-laid plans face possible disruptions – positive or negative. To kick off our ‘Future of the Network’ research stream, we outlined the key questions determining the business case for future investments in the network. This is Part 2, which covers critical network-technology disruptions, the impact of government and regulation, and the shifting vendor landscape.