The Ericsson 2014 Networked Society City Index has ranked Stockholm, London, Paris, Singapore and Copenhagen as the top 5 cities.
Los Angeles is in position # 11, Seoul 12, Beijing 26, Delhi 36, Mumbai 37 and Lagos 38.
Please see the rank below.
The top five cities are the same as in 2013. Paris has overtaken Singapore due to better results in ICT maturity compared with 2013. Stockholm and London perform well in all dimensions of the index and distinguish themselves particularly with their high ICT usage, said Ericsson.
The cities added in 2014 are Berlin, Munich, Barcelona, Athens, Rome, Warsaw, Muscat, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Among these, Munich enjoys the highest ranking, followed by Berlin and Barcelona.
Smartphone penetration, of the the indicators, best reflects a city’s ICT maturity and performance in the triple bottom line dimensions.
Stockholm and London, the top-two cities in the index, both register very high ICT usage compared to other cities. Both also enjoy extremely well-developed open data and e-services. ICT technology penetration rates among their residents are also high, said Ericsson.
Stockholm, as number one in the index, enjoys high-quality access to both fixed and mobile broadband, thanks to extensive infrastructure rollouts. Stockholm performs much better than London when it comes to access to and quality of fixed and mobile broadband. London and Stockholm are also the best-performing cities in the economic dimension of the index.
Paris is now number three in the Networked Society City Index. This is explained by broadband quality improving faster in Paris than in Singapore. Paris has also caught up with Singapore in fiber and smartphone penetration.
However, Singapore still outperforms Paris in fixed broadband speeds and, in fact, on this measure is topped only by Hong Kong. Paris and Singapore perform equally well in the triple bottom line dimensions. Paris’ third position in the index is not secure and could well change in the future.
London and Paris perform very well for large cities. Many top-performing cities in the index are rather small in terms of population in comparison to the index average. This may be an advantage, allowing easier implementation of city-wide ICT solutions.
Cities with low ICT maturity tend to mature faster than higher performing cities. This indicates a catch-up effect among several cities. Jakarta, Cairo, Lagos, Delhi and Dhaka are cities that experience low ICT maturity levels and face several social, economic and environmental challenges the index shows promising improvement rates in these cities.
Cities such as Moscow, Sao Paulo, Istanbul, Beijing and Shanghai are also experiencing substantial improvements in their ICT maturity, a development that can bring triple bottom line progress if managed sustainably.
Image source: Ericsson
