Two interesting new reports from Navigant Research reveal the top 10 smart city providers, and the current state of the market as the integration of smart city projects around the world starts to gather momentum.

This week came news that Ofcom is to investigate Vodafone and Three to decide whether they have breached EU net neutrality rules. The rules were brought in last August by the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) last August to ensure that all network traffic is treated equally and that one type of traffic is not prioritised over another.

A new report from O2 suggests that 5G will ‘update the operating system of our cities’ and generate £6 billion in productivity savings for the UK economy. Whether this becomes reality remains to be seen, but the report does offer an interesting glimpse into how operators are thinking about potential 5G use cases.

5G technologies enable a key innovation that can drive rollout and adoption. The cost of deploying, however, mean that a slow spread of coverage can be expected – unless a more open regulatory environment can be created. Policy needs to be drafted to meet the needs of the real 5G users – businesses – so that rollout can be accelerated.