Japan’s SoftBank is joining Dublin City Council’s Smart City programme and the Smart Docklands District testbed, and will pilot its global internet of things platform in Dublin.
Under the partnership, Dublin City Council and Softbank will exchange information and knowledge about Smart City solutions, explore potential trials and proofs of concepts.
The company will work with industry, academia and entrepreneurs to collaboratively solve challenges facing cities, and improve service delivery
"This partnership will help position Dublin at the forefront of Smart City innovation and to turn the opportunity of Smart City technologies into a reality," said Owen Keegan, chief executive of Dublin City Council. "We are committed to building a programme of activity through 'Smart Dublin' and to concentrate pilots across our Smart Docklands testbed district which is emerging as a world class smart technology testbed."
A number of Smart City solutions will also be trialled, with the partnership aiming to focus on solutions that can easily transferred to other cities.
“We look forward to collaborating with Dublin City Council to share our rich experience in Smart City development in Japan and to also leverage our global IoT platform,” said said Junichi Miyakawa, chief technology officer of SoftBank. “SoftBank strongly believes it can contribute to Dublin’s development and future growth building out local solutions that can scale globally.”
In February, a group of international City chief technology officers have met in Dublin to begin to hammer out a framework for the development of so-called Smart districts. The meeting of the Smart City Innovation Accelerator included CTOs from San Jose, Moscow, Tel Aviv, Paris and 19 other cities, and was convened by the Harvard-linked Technology And Entrepreneurship Centre.
