The city of Bristol, in the UK, has launched a £75m initiative to create a futuristic Smart City urban experiment. Major elements of the project are already underway, turning the city into a high-tech test-bed for innovation. Including a 30 Gigabit per second fibre broadband network powering the research project. Bristol City Council is working with Bristol University and commercial partners such as, Japanese firm, NEC, to equip the city with the latest in sensor and connectivity technology. Named ‘Bristol is Open’, the project will effectively turn Bristol into a giant laboratory and explore the ways Big Data can be used to solve problems such as pollution, congestion and healthcare. Bristol is not the only UK city hosting smart city trials; it is, in fact, one of four cities currently testing driverless car technology as part of a government scheme. However, Bristol has several notable advantages, which positions it among the most exciting smart city […]