From intelligent traffic systems and connected street lights, to advanced artificial intelligence that provides insights to create smarter city planning, TELUS Smart City solutions enable municipalities of any size to improve the lives of their citizens

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, TELUS accelerated its commitment to Smart City solutions that empower municipalities to leverage technology and data in new ways to benefit residents’ health and safety, meet sustainability goals, and increase operational efficiencies. Currently, TELUS has deployed technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) to enable Smart City solutions in more than 65 municipalities across Canada. These solutions help city officials track infrastructure usage, save energy with intelligent lighting systems, improve traffic flow, decrease emergency response times, and much more. For residents, the result is a faster commute, getting the help they need faster in an emergency, safer neighbourhoods and public spaces, and even cleaner air to breathe.

“Our Smart City solutions are changing the way municipalities operate by delivering innovation to assist in public safety and security efforts, enabling the analysis of data in new ways to improve city operations and, ultimately, providing a better quality of life for residents,” said Jason Macdonnell, President, TELUS Security and Automation. “From intelligent traffic systems and connected street lights, to advanced artificial intelligence that provides insights to create smarter city planning, TELUS Smart City solutions enable municipalities of any size to improve the lives of their citizens. As our 5G network continues to roll out to both urban and rural communities across Canada, Smart City solutions are well-positioned to provide even more value to municipalities and residents alike.”

TELUS provides end-to-end solutions to support municipality’s digital transformation, which is crucial to ensuring interoperability between systems, and also means that everything from hardware and IoT devices to management software, cloud infrastructure, and artificial intelligence capabilities -- plus the world-class connectivity necessary to realize the full potential of these solutions -- is covered by a single provider.

“Our long-standing expertise in providing both Internet of Things devices and connectivity to our customers underpins our commitment to enabling municipalities with advanced technologies to foster vibrant, thriving communities,” said Michael Cihra, VP of IoT, TELUS. “With a solid foundation stemming from our experience in IoT, security, network infrastructure, and connecting disparate technologies into cohesive systems, we are excited to now lend our expertise to delivering exceptional Smart City solutions that improve the lives of Canadians.”

In addition to the 65 communities already deploying Smart City technology across Canada, TELUS continues to test and innovate with several active pilot projects that are expanding the capabilities of our technology in both major metropolitan areas and less densely populated rural communities. These projects fall within four foundational pillars:

Intelligent Transportation

  • Sensors, cameras, and other devices that are built into or near roads, sidewalks, and bike paths, that provide data for innovative software to improve traffic flow in real-time. This data also helps to better inform decisions around infrastructure and city planning, fleet optimization, and economic drivers like tourism hot spots.

Operational & Environmental Sustainability

  • Increasing a municipality's operational efficiencies not only saves time, money, and human resources, but helps to contribute to municipalities’ sustainability goals. These Smart City solutions include connected lighting, energy management, environmental sensors, and asset tracking.

Public Safety and Security

  • Smart City solutions that contribute to public safety and security include advanced video systems that provide not only on-premise security, but video and data analytics. Crucially, these systems aid in emergency response and event management scenarios, allowing for faster response times and better public safety outcomes.

Public Health

  • In a time when public health is at the forefront of both residents and municipalities minds, connected devices can aid in decision-making through virtual care solutions, reducing the burden on our health system. For example, thermal imaging technology that can help provide alerts of potential health concerns to reduce the spread of an infection. Smart City technologies help to keep communities healthy.

In addition to the development and deployment of our own technologies, TELUS is partnering with proven leaders in the Smart City space. Leaders like Miovision, a globally-recognized, Canadian company using computer vision, artificial intelligence and advanced modelling to help cities modernize their approach to traffic management. Leveraging the dedicated TELUS IoT network, purpose-built for IoT connected devices, Miovision-equipped traffic signals allow cities to remotely access, analize, and action data generated at intersections, easing traffic congestion, reducing carbon emissions and making intersections safer for vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians.

As with all TELUS products and services, customer privacy is of the utmost importance. Our Smart Cities solutions are built using our data Trust Model, which incorporates core principles of Accountability, Ethical Use, and Transparency. We remain committed to those principles, including the rigorous review of all products and services using Privacy & Security by Design. The advancements in our Smart City solutions will bring about remarkable human outcomes for the benefits of Canadians without compromising our long-standing commitment to respect the privacy of our customers.

For more details about the TELUS Smart City solutions, please visit telus.com/municipality.

About TELUS
TELUS (TSX: T, NYSE: TU) is a dynamic, world-leading communications and information technology company with $15 billion in annual revenue and 15.4 million customer connections spanning wireless, data, IP, voice, television, entertainment, video and security. At TELUS, we leverage our world-leading technology’s potential to enable remarkable human outcomes. Our long-standing commitment to putting customers first fuels every aspect of our business, making us a distinct leader in customer service excellence and loyalty. TELUS Health is Canada’s largest health care IT provider, and TELUS International delivers the most innovative business process solutions to some of the world’s most established brands.

Driven by our passionate social purpose to connect all Canadians for good, our deeply meaningful and enduring philosophy to give where we live has inspired our team members and retirees to contribute $736 million and 1.4 million days of service since 2000. This unprecedented generosity and unparalleled volunteerism have made TELUS the most giving company in the world.

For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com, follow us @TELUSNews on Twitter and @Darren_Entwistle on Instagram.

Media Contact
Doug Self
douglas.self@telus.com
403-616-8741 

Primary Logo