Telekom Romania implements Smart Cities solution in Bucharest park

Operator Telekom Romania announced it implemented its first integrated Smart City project in Romania, in Tineretului Park, Children’s City Area, in the 4^th district of Bucharest. The pilot project was implemented by Telekom Romania with the support of its technology partner Cisco, which provided the equipment and the integration platform. The value of the contract was not specified.

“We are currently undergoing the largest wave of urban growth in history. More than half of the world’s population now lives in towns and cities, and by 2030 this number will increase to about 5 billion. It is no wonder that today’s cities face tremendous challenges – from rising populations and shrinking budgets to the need to economize on the use of resources. Deutsche Telekom Group, as an information and telecommunications company, provides efficient support in the evolution of urban environments by enhancing public services such as traffic and urban mobility planning. We are very active across Europe, and are happy that Bucharest has now become another leading smart city in our European footprint,” said Ralf Nejedl, senior vice-president B2B & ICT at Deutsche Telekom.

The Smart City solutions implemented by Telekom Romania in Tinretului Park consists of four integrated components: Smart Parking, Wi-Fi connectivity, City Safety and Smart Lighting. It is operating on a dedicated Internet of Things (IoT) platform, according to the press release.

The Smart Parking solution was previously implemented by DT in the Italian city of Pisa, with the support of Kiunsys. By using the Tap &Park mobile application [demo video], now available for IoS and soon on, Android and Windows mobile, a driver will identify in real time whether there are available parking spaces near the designated area in Children’s City zone in Tineretului Park.

The solution has a module dedicated to the local authority or parking administration that gives visibility on the parking space occupancy and level of traffic in the area and which can generate various reports. In the future, the app will be developed to include more parking areas in Bucharest. Also, a new upcoming feature will allow drivers to pay the parking fee through their mobile phone, directly to the local authority or parking operators, without any additional costs. The parking solution will be extended to also include notifications announcing drivers when their parking time expires.

The Wi-Fi solution enables visitors of the park to enjoy Internet access free of charge in a designated area. It can be extended to include data analytics features providing the local authorities with a monitoring tool of the traffic, with peaks and lows, based on which security services in the area can be managed more efficiently. In addition, other public facilities can be introduced or re-arranged to better serve the real needs of the citizens.

The City Safety solution involves a video surveillance system and an app based on which certain pre-defined scenarios which request the intervention of the authorities can be identified. The solution allows alerts in case of vandalism or trespassing restricted areas or in case a person is in the situation of requiring immediate help. Another benefit of the solution is the possibility to identify illegally parked cars [demo video].The solution can be also used for car counting and license plate identification [demo video].

The Smart Lighting solution was deployed on eight poles equipped with LED lights and controllers sensitive to movement and ambient light intensity. They can be controlled remotely or automatically to increase the light intensity whenever somebody is close to them. The implementation of this solution results in a decrease of energy costs by up to 60 percent, a significant benefit for local authorities, according to the press release.

Otilia Haraga