Romanian city sees first results of smart technologies project

The central Romania city of Alba Iulia is seeing the first results of the smart city pilot project implemented by telecom operator Orange Romania. The collaboration agreement between the Alba Iulia City Hall and Orange Romania on this project was signed almost a year ago. The city is currently equipped with broadband, 4G/4G+, WiFi and LoRaWAN networks. It has over 228 access point in the city and 15 access point in the public transport. Within a year of the service being functional, 8% of the city’s 60,000 population has accessed the service and generated over 1TB of data traffic, Orange Romania said. The 15 Wi-Fi equipped buses also have air quality monitoring sensors installed. The city’s IoT (internet of things) network covers six gateways and connects 150 sensors for lighting and water. The public lighting management solution generated savings of 50 -70% of the electricity consumption, depending on the light intensity set for each electricity pole. The water management solution is still being installed. The resident of Alba Iulia can alert the authorities on the issues they identify in the city through the Civic Alert app, while the City Hall can track the pedestrian traffic through the City Analytics solutions. Two high schools in Alba Iulia, the Dionisie Pop Marțian Economic College and the Horea, Cloșca și Crișan National College, received the digital classroom solution. This includes tablets, a digital catalogue, internet access and filtered web traffic. This year, 120 teachers and almost 1,500 students will benefit from this solution. The e-alba iulia Android and iOS app allows tourists to access information about the main tourist sites in the city and local businesses can organize dedicated campaigns here. At this point, the app has 1,200 users. At the same time, since Orange was accepted in the Horizon2020, MATILDA and SLICENET research and development programs, Alba Iulia will also benefit from 5G technologies fitting the smart city project. Smart city project brings free Wi-Fi to another Romanian city editor@romania-insider.com