Bradford, England Launches Two Smart City Networks

The city of Bradford, England is launching two new networks this week that will be jointly run by Bradford Council, Digital Catapult Yorkshire, the University of Bradford and ODI Leeds. They will include a LoRaWAN Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) network and an Internet of Things (IoT) network called Things Bradford and Leeds. It’s expected that the new networks will bring opportunities for research, development and commissioning of smart city initiatives, attracting technology entrepreneurs to the Bradford district and creating business opportunities.

One of the main areas to be handled by the system is the live monitoring of the River Aire levels in three locations to help provide early warnings of flood risks, with plans to add more locations in the coming year.

Kersten England, Bradford Council’s chief executive, said, “These new networks will help us to all play an active role in facilitating the development of new devices and the next generation of apps and also create new business opportunities. We want to make our district a technology hub, developing the next big digital revolution creating these new smart cities devices and use the data collected to help shape the future of our district.”

Ian Sharp, chief executive of Digital Health Enterprise Zone, said: “There are lots of experimental systems being launched across the UK and it is critically important that Bradford stays ahead of the game and supports our innovative companies. We already have many businesses that are supplying Internet of Things devices into both business and consumer markets, we hope to stimulate the environment for these businesses to succeed and for new companies to be created and grow in Bradford.”

Paul Connell, founder ODI Leeds, said, “This is a glimpse of the future and Bradford is right in the middle of it.  Connecting things and people and innovating with data, with a purpose, for good is what we’re all about and we’re so pleased to be part of this pioneering work in Bradford.”