A new world of cutting-egde connectivity

WIM ELFRINK, executive vice president of Cisco Services, has played a leading role in executing the US networking giant's globalisation strategy over the past several years. Based in the Indian city of Bangalore, Elfrink is particularly bullish on the prospects of smart and connected communities using cutting-edge information and communication technology (ICT).

In his opinion, demographic shifts are creating new opportunities for citizens, cities and developers around the world. This will result in an estimated 500 million people getting urbanised over the next five years, especially in Asia Pacific, where economies are showing signs of a recovery following the global financial crisis, which started last year.

Predicting that about three billion people will be connected to the Internet in the next decade, Elfrink believes there will be more than 100 new cities with a population of more than 1 million by 2025.

These cities will be run by networked information, allowing many new online services being delivered directly to your home or your kids' school.

For example, residents in an apartment in South Korean city of Incheon would soon get a "school connect" service that allows kids to access distance-learning programmes or private music and other lessons at home on demand.

Or parents might seek online medical advice on demand when they have heath problems or the Incheon international school could have virtual meetings with counterparts in other cities or countries. Or you may even run your home's automation system while you are away, via your cellphone.

Elfrink said the number of people linked up via the Internet is projected to top 14 billion worldwide next year, up from just 300 million in 2001. This shows that ICT is growing very fast and a new generation of connected cities will emerge rapidly as a result.

Over the past decade, he says, the rapid rise of the Net has ushered in an era of consumer-Internet marked by the popularity of websites such as YouTube. In the business and industrial world, the popularity of the Internet is evidenced by billions of business and commercial websites.

Most importantly, all these are interconnected by the network, which will allow the transformation of city management, says Elfrink, who is also Cisco's chief globalisation officer. Besides Incheon, parts of older cities such as Amsterdam and San Francisco have also been transformed using the digital network.

Elfrink says connected communities will be more sustainable in economic, social and environmental terms. Economically, they can create more jobs and boost key industries' competitiveness while attracting new ones. Socially, running cities based on networked information will allow better public services that boost citizens' quality of life and social inclusion. In addition, there will be less environmental impacts due to more efficiency in energy consumption.

According to one study, cited by Elfrink, a smart and digitally-connected city of, say, 5 million people, could generate revenues of more than US$15 billion ($21.45 billion) within 20 years while creating an estimated 375,000 new jobs.

In terms of energy consumption, efficiency will increase by 30 per cent due to automation, better monitoring and adjustment. This will be a boon for the environment since the world's top-20 mega-cities will use 75 per cent of all energy by 2025.

The Nation/ANN