Moscow to build on its smart city credentials
Summary
Moscow’s government is taking advantage of high penetration of broadband and mobile internet to expand innovative services under the Russian capital’s smart city programme.Among the new technology Moscow already has in place is a speech recognition system for the municipal power company, which allows customers to use their voice to enter their electricity meter reading.The city’s power company is also rolling out an IoT-based control system for utility resources which will detect how much electricity, water and heating a building consumes.Blockchain has been all the rage in Russia since president Vladimir Putin announced at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in June that a digital economy should be the government’s top priority.Meanwhile, the biggest challenge for Moscow Smart City Lab is to promote innovation and “explain how technology will improve people’s life rather than make it more complicated”, said Tuzmukhametov.