The smart cities market will be a $7.6 billion opportunity for mobile service providers and network vendors by 2023, a report from ABI Research said.
Mobile service providers are using innovation to become key market players; their challenge is now to scale these offerings.

Verizon, a leading telecom operator in the US, has a smart city strategy backed by strong M&A activity. Verizon acquired Sensity System and LQD. AT&T, another leading telecom operator in the US, is adding partners to deliver spotlight cities solutions.

BT, a leading telecom operator in the UK, is betting on analytics capabilities.

Deutsche Telekom, a leading telecom operator in Germany with strong presence in US via T-Mobile, is leveraging NB-IoT deployments and innovative business models.

MSPs success in smart cities will be defined by their ability to act – owning a wide ecosystem of partners and improving customer relations while aligning various interests, assets, and innovative monetization options. MSPs’ success and activities will be shaped by their ability to innovate and not by 5G.

The size of the smart city market, with its different sub-verticals, means that MSPs can target and assume various roles from system integrators to platform providers, said Pablo Tomasi, senior analyst at ABI Research.

The report said MSPs need to balance competition and prioritize innovative business models, for instance, based on advertising or performance-based revenues, rather than waiting and fostering the marketing trend centered on the role and potential of 5G in smart cities.