This year’s Mobile World Congress will see Nokia unveil its new service for IoT sensing service for smart cities which will be based on blockchain technology. The mobile communications technology provider introduced the service that would use blockchain to monetize data and facilitate payment for IoT data.
IoT (short for Internet of Things) is a highly advanced technology that connects billions of devices and interacts with them. This depends largely on sensors on these devices to gather huge amounts of data.
Smart cities use this data to manage assets and resources efficiently. The government needs to have in place, systems collect this data, analyses it and uses it to monitor and manage transportation, energy, waste, law enforcement etc. in real time.
Nokia introduces #services, technology to help operators address needs of digital cities https://t.co/wtNNVTgvGx #MWC18 #IoT pic.twitter.com/rlzn7KalkU
— Nokia for Communications Service Providers (@nokianetworks) February 20, 2018
Asad Rizvi, head of Global Services Business Development at Nokia said that “cities need to become digital in order to efficiently deliver services to their habitants.” He explained that “smart infrastructure, which is shared, secure, and scalable, is needed to ensure urban assets and data are efficiently used. We can help cities with that.”
However, for IoT to work for smart cities, there have to be incentives for network operators who manage the infrastructures that provide the government with these data. In this regard, Rizvi said “we [Nokia] can help operators generate new revenue utilizing their existing network by providing solutions for smart city players, such as city, transport, travel and public safety authorities.”
Nokia provides Sensing as a Service (SaaS) which allows mobile network operators (MNOs) to monetize their existing infrastructure, such as towers, by selling sensor data to cities and others. To monetize these infrastructures, the service first digitizes them by creating automated smart contracts based on a blockchain framework. This will enable “micro-transactions” through which they can generate revenue from their data.
Nokia has released a solution paper which outlines the details of the new service ahead of the Mobile World Congress.
Mobile World Congress will be held in Barcelona from February 26 to March 1, 2018, and will feature exhibitions from top industry players alongside Nokia.
Solomon Sunny is the market reporter for Smartereum, one of the global leaders in Ethereum, blockchain and currency news. He produces technical price updates on digital currencies and writes recent developments about blockchain.
