Archives : Smart Cities

Major infrastructure projects still important in region

published on 2010/06/14 by Anthony Plewes

a series of interviews speaking with Orange Business Services experts in the Middle East and Africa about the special challenges and opportunities in the region...

Major infrastructure projects still important in region

Google to power UAE municipality

published on 2009/11/25 by Simon Marshall

The UAE oasis city of Al-Ain looks set to benefit from working with Google to improve its level of contact with citizens and the way it manages its internal work flows. The local authority will use Google software to boost its administration by adopting Google Docs as its preferred source of applications. The authority has extended this idea to citizens by planning to offer them all Google Gmail addresses to help them stay in touch with the local authority.If this latter plan goes ahead, Al-Ain will be the world's first municipality to service its population this way. Also on the......

UAE fibre network build out to boost local economy

published on 2009/11/10 by Simon Marshall

Abu Dhabi is preparing itself to be the first capital city in the world with 100% fibre connectivity by the end of 2009, as part of a US$1.4 billion build out across the UAE to be completed by 2011. The incumbent, Etisalat, plans to raise the coverage of fibre from 60% to 90% in two years, connecting one million homes and businesses - twice as many as today - through its e-Life service.The technical plan is to trump DSL bandwidth and offer up to 100Mbps for new services such as IPTV, video on demand, online gaming, and creating smart homes......

eGovernment extends further across the UAE

published on 2009/03/27 by Stewart Baines

As users get more comfortable with the transacting online, governments are finding they can do more, more efficiently. That's certainly the case in the UAE where Dubai is extending egovernment to visitors and Abu Dhabi is training users to maximise their usage of government services online. The Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department is rolling out the welcome mat online with a new service to allow residents and visitors to receive entry permits and visas by SMS or email. The mobile visa scheme will also extend to people planning to visit the emirate. Dubai has long been committed to providing......

Masdar project plugs Abu Dhabi into solar power

published on 2009/02/02 by Stewart Baines

Development of Masdar City, the carbon neutral city being constructed near Abu Dhabi's airport, is well underway and Abu Dhabi residents could soon benefit from clean energy. Masdar, the renewable energy company, is set to connect its solar power station to the grid. The solar plant, which will have a capacity of 10 megawatts, has been designed to cover the power needs of the construction phase of Masdar City and, when the Masdar Institute welcomes its first batch of postgraduate research students this September, their research will be powered by the solar plant. The project certainly looks to be gathering......