Espoo won the Intelligent Community of the Year 2018 award with the help of LuxTurrim5G

City of Espoo received the 2018 Intelligent Community of the Year award given by the Intelligent Community Forum at its Global Summit in London June 6, 2018. Espoo was honored in its first year as a competitor in the program after a year-long evaluation that included a quantitative analysis of extensive data, site inspections by the Intelligent Community Forum and votes from an international jury made up of experts from around the world.

“The LuxTurrim5G ecosystem funded by Business Finland and driven by Nokia Bell Labs and Spinverse was in a key role to support Espoo to reach this award. This recognition strengthens our possibilities to attract knowledge intensive companies and create new jobs in Finland. In longer term, the active collaboration of companies, universities, and city will bring a lot of benefits for the daily life of citizens and the whole community both in Espoo, and in Finland" says Jukka Mäkelä, Mayor of Espoo.

"Our joint development in LuxTurrim5G brings in the high capacity broadband connectivity enabling new digital services and utilization of data. In the ICF Summit, our concept was proven to be very strong and, it seems, this is exactly what many Smart Cities are currently lacking", says LuxTurrim5G project coordinator Juha Salmelin, Nokia.

Spinverse has facilitated the building of this highly multi-disciplinary innovation ecosystem project and is taking care of comprehensive project management. “We are developing and demonstrating fast 5G network based on smart light poles with integrated antennas, base stations, sensors, screens and other devices. During this year we’ll expand our test network at Nokia Campus, Espoo, to cover ten smart poles which allows practical piloting of new digital services on e.g. security, positioning and air quality”, says Project Manager Markku Heino, Spinverse.

ICF co-founder Lou Zacharilla commented that "Espoo’s holistic philosophy of humanizing every aspect of its technology and teaching innovation as a way of life was extremely impressive. Espoo’s citizen engagement rates are extremely high, which democracies need, and its economic output speaks for itself. The city is a hidden gem in Finland. Now they have been ‘found out!’”

LuxTurrim5G is a Nokia Bell Labs driven ecosystem project managed by Spinverse and funded by Business Finland.

Read more about the winner and award from the press releases:
LuxTurrim 5G website
Intelligent Community Forum
City of Espoo

Photo credit: Ilpo Musto