European governments are deploying municipal wireless

September 26, 2015

At the 2015 Wireless & Digital Cities Congress in Cannes, executives representing local government and technology providers from 53 countries and 107 cities across Europe will be discussing the future for municipal digital wireless networks.

An independent survey conducted by conference organisers across Europe’s government and IT community has revealed a commitment to deploying local government wireless networks.

Internal productivity issues and the desire to be seen as a modern government has committed 30% of authorities in East and Western Europe, and North America, to have wireless networks operational by summer 2016.

A further 45% of authorities are actively developing plans. However half of all those surveyed cited securing funding as the biggest hurdle in deploying municipal networks.

It is considered that, with a viable, revenue-generating business model for local authorities and commercial businesses, governments can be equipped to overcome a lot of the key, finance-related barriers that they face.