Smart city deployments collect data that is analysed vertically, a practice that needs to change if their potential is to be realised, argued Deutsche Telekom board member Claudia Nemat in a blog.

Data gathered from sensors around a city are currently held in a separate pool, characterised as a “landlocked lake” by Nemat, the company’s board member in charge of Technology & Innovation and Europe.

In the future, every city will have multiple digital applications, running concurrently, churning out data. Cities need to develop the capability to view this data horizontally, as well as vertically, she argued.

Nemat suggests operators will need to get to grips with artificial intelligence (AI) if they are to progress with such initiatives.

“The content of such data ‘oceans’ will be so massive, and the relevant analysis so complex, that only artificial intelligence will be able to carry out the relevant data processing and forwarding with the necessary accuracy and speed,” she said.

The Deutsche Telekom executive also updated about a couple of the operator’s own smart city initiatives. In Dubrovnik, the Croatian city, and in Romanian capital Bucharest, the company is testing so-called digitised city centres. The areas concerned include street lighting, safety and parking.

In smart parking, available spaces are being fitted with sensors that tell drivers if they are available. The company described the results as being “impressive”, with less traffic, as well as lower CO2 and particulate emissions. In addition, drivers save time that they would otherwise spend in looking for parking.

Deutsche Telekom is also testing intelligent parking systems in the Italian city of Pisa, which has a resident population of 90,000 and an added population of 30,000 daily commuters – the majority of whom drive into the city every day.