Information-Inspired Smart Community

Recently， the State Council of China announced the“Broadband China” strategic implementation plan， mapping out the broadband development target and route for the following 8 years， signaling that the “Broadband Project” of China has been upgraded to a national strategy level. In Shanghai where the Metro Optical Network （MO- NET） plan was first carried out in the whole country， China Telecom Shanghai embarked on its MONET project in 2009 and has been pressing ahead with the practical application of MONET “Smart Community” development in order to build communication bridge between the government and public through interactive channel of cloud information platform and multimedia.

The smart community construction is one of the focuses of China Telecom Shanghai in 2013. To construct a better integrated open platform， improve service provision and carry forward the development of smart community， China Telecom Shanghai starts an open recruitment for partners for cooperation in information service field such as healthcare， education， business and government affairs.

Open recruitment for partners

On October 29th， a climax of the “Smarter City” experiencing week， the “China Telecom Shanghai Smart Community Cooperation Recruitment Conference” unrolled its curtains. The recruitment drew attention from more than 50 enterprises from all over the country and 12 of them signed cooperative agreements with China Telecom on the spot.

These 12 companies provide services from “cloud housekeeping”， BeiDou Navigation to gymnastics. Reportedly， the two sides would initiate further discussion about “what and how” to do after signing the agreements. Residents of smart communities can expect to get service from IPTV， cell phones and other multi-screen terminals soon.

According to China Telecom Shanghai， achievements of this conference will bring more applications to the smart community platform to meet users’ needs. A “convenient information store” made up with various application services and online trading products will help reform the citizens’ information consumption habit， optimize the consumption pattern and improve the consumption level.

It is understood that since the launching of the first smart community pilot program in 2012， China Telecom Shanghai has signed agreements with most of Shanghai’s district governments and over half of the sub-districts to build smart communities. Their service has covered over 2000 neighborhoods and village committees. By incorporating public information service from government agencies at all levels and more than 30 livelihood information services provided by social enterprises， currently completed platforms of“Smart Community” have introduced application services like community bul- letin， Shanghai tourism， health profile， real time vegetable prices， clinic appointment and facility reservation.

To meet people’s hot demand for welfare， China Telecom Shanghai follows the idea of “inclusive and win-win cooperation” and keeps recruiting smart community developing partners. In the light of “focus on content application， product advantage and resources characteristic； play down communication experience and company size”， supported by 7 millions broadband users， 2 million IPTV users and more than 3 million“E-surfing” smart-phone users， China Telecom Shanghai will keep open up to further cooperation.

The cooperation involves 12 main fields as follows： transportation and travel， business area service， healthcare， culture and sports， elderly care， community information， education service， employment information， government service， social service， information service and encyclopedia service.

China Telecom promises to provide business and product operating platforms for customers and keep developing smart community cooperation areas. The requirement will last for a long time. Any company that fits the requirement can lodge an application through the “External Cooperation Window”of China Telecom Shanghai. To accelerate the integration of quality resources， standouts among applicants can use the“Express Lane” of cooperation process.

Live in Smart Mode

What is called “smart community”means to integrate various kinds of service resources under the frame of Smarter City in order to provide more accessible government， business， entertainment， medical care and life services by utilizing cable， wireless， cloud computing and all sorts of information technologies.

Smart community involves four categories of applications： smart government service to distribute government affair information such as government announcement and commodity prices； smart livelihood service including smart elderly care， healthcare and online education to provide residents with online monitoring， long-distance medical care and education service； smart household by forming a network of smart terminals， smart appliances and home security； smart property management involving residential area elevators， landscape lighting and vehicle access.

Reported so far， smart community platform project has covered 17 districts of Shanghai. Many citizens have pioneered in experiencing the new information life style. They can register in distance without queuing at the hospital by simply pressing a button on the remote control； use card to pay at the community food market； search for parking information and community announcement as well as vote at com-munity affairs with smart phones. Up to this October， the platform already covered nearly half of Shanghai’s 5400 communities and delivered the annual target ahead of schedule.

China Telecom Shanghai has been deepening the construction of the smart community platform this year. First of all， access terminal range extends from IPTV to all kinds of smart terminals.“Smart Community for Mobiles” is a community life application carefully designed by China Telecom Shanghai. Supported by China Telecom Shanghai Smart Community Integrated Open Information Platform， it serves community residents through mobiles with government public services， community information services and enterprise quality services pooling together.

Noticeable is Smart Community For Mobiles that can position the users and provide localized services such as“transportations and travels”， “education services”， “employment services”and “business area services” accordingly. Smart community for PC and pad are also expected.

Second， China Telecom Shanghai has signed agreements with district and sub-district government agencies all over the city in order to provide community services to residents， platforms to partners.

According to related personnel，“China Telecom Shanghai Smart Community Cooperation Recruitment Conference” will focus on applications that concern people’s welfare， such as transportation and travel， business service， healthcare， education and elderly care.

As for high quality applications， China Telecom Shanghai will give extra support such as product certification， application customization and marketing to upgrade these partners’ brand value.“Just like Apple Store， the platform of smart community is also open to everyone. As the operator， China Telecom welcomes all sectors of society to join us to enrich the community services with more practical information.” said official with China Telecom Shanghai.

As of now， Shanghai IPTV has more than 2 million users， which still takes the lead among all big cities of China. HD-IPTV also has almost 600，000 users. MONET takes 75% percent of all broad band users. Averaged band width is beyond 20M. According to third party reports from China Broadband Development Alliance， NetIndex， CCIndex and 360， Shanghai has the fastest broadband speed in China.

To allow Shanghai citizens to experience the top speed of optical network， China Telecom Shanghai has already launched the sixth campaign of “Smarter City” broadband speed-up. 2013 is the last and decisive year to carry forward the development of “Shanghai Smarter City 2011-2013 Project”. Smart community program has been listed as No.1 Smarter City project. Along with the gradual completion of smart community， China Telecom Shanghai will once again lead the trend of Shanghai’s information development.

Fuel the “Smarter City” Development

At the recently closed 2013 Shanghai International Industry Fair， with a catchword of “Innovate with Technology， Enlighten the Future”， China Telecom showcased its devotion as a main force of the development of “Broadband China Project”， and more importantly， suggested the trend of future city information development.

At the fair exhibition stand， China Telecom displayed the overall perspec- tive of Shanghai “Smarter City” solutions. Livelihood-concerned applications represented by “Smart Household”，“Smart Property Management”， “Family MegaEye” and “HD IPTV” showed that Telecom’s information services had become a part of people’s domestic and community life.

On the opening day， many citizens thronged to Telecom’s stand to see these smart applications. Residents from“European Floral City” community were especially interested in applications like “Household MegaEye” even though they were already used to getting information like daily food prices through IPTV channels.

What’s most impressive about Telecom’s “Smarter City” development is the involvement of internet. To build MONET， China Telecom Shanghai have accelerated “Smarter City” optical network for six times. Many Shanghai households are enjoying the high speed service with fiber optic network. With the MONET， China’s Telecom Shanghai’s E-surfing 3G Mobile service also starts to show its prowess and contribute to the “Space-earth Integration Network” project as part of the development of “Smarter City”.

“Internet of Vehicles” is one of the successful cases of the E-surfing 3G Mobile service. “Internet of Vehicles”chips provided by China Telecom Shanghai can be installed in family cars and serve as navigator， real-time traffic reporter， vehicle monitor and so on.“Smart 120” is an application specially designed for 120 ambulances aiming to save time during emergencies.

China Telecom Shanghai considers applications concerned people’s welfare the highlights of “Smarter City” and hopes to boost the development of it in depth.