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The Expo area in Milan in one of the 1st examples of smart cities in Italy which shows the massive potentials of the IoT, but what regulatory changes are necessary to replicate it across Europe?
The Smart City
The Expo Milan 2015 is one of the major events of the year that will host from 1 May to 31 October 2015 over 20 million visitors to its 1.1 million square meters of exhibition area.
The Expo exhibition area is also a perfect example of smart city with 200 km of optical fiber, a 4G Lte network with 18 antennas, 2,770 access points and over a hundred multimedia terminals. Also, a service delivery platform has been built in order to ensure on a daily basis the performance of 2.5 million transactions, the delivery of over 7.5 million marketing notifications based on users’ location, 150,000 emails and 2.6 million text messages.
The Internet of Things in Italy
It might be a coincidence, but the beginning of the Expo occurs just a few days after the issue of the report by the Italian telecom regulator on the Internet of Things (IoT) covered in this blog post and the launch of the very important consultation on the IoT by the Italian privacy regulator (Garante) of which I discussed in this blog post.
Cybersecurity and data protection are the main issues of any smart city project together with data ownership that leads to discussions about “open data” and its regulations that are often seen as an essentional component for any country that wants to invest in smart city projects and in general in the IoT. This is why the partecipation to the consultation of the privacy regulator might be an essential step for the future of the IoT.
There is no doubt that visitors will appreciate the “smart” services offered at the Expo smart city, but would a more certain legal framework in terms of obligations ensure lower risks of lack of compliance and additional resources for the sector? Is this necessary for the growth of the IoT or regulations are likely to create just additional troubles?
Pending the outcome of the privacy consultation on the IoT, I encourage you to visit the Expo that as showed in the picture is really amazing. And come to visit me if you come to Milan!
