The beautiful city of Makati in the Philippines has taken the first steps towards becoming a smart city, following an announcement which was made at the FTTH Council Asia-Pacific’s Philippines Workshop. The project has been described as a trend setter in terms of smart cities in the region – and it has been described a significant and progressive step in the development and regeneration of cities in the Philippines.
Senior representatives from the Makati mayor's office were joined by the Philippines National Telecommunications Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba at the workshop, which discussed the implementation of an optical fiber infrastructure as the basis of a smart city project in the area. This aligns with the wider plans for improved broadband services in the region, mandated by Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte.
The discussion of the Makati smart city project was just one of the tracks for the recent workshop, which brought together more than 80 attendees and featured nine speakers from across the fiber industry.
Peter Macaulay, President of the FTTH Council Asia-Pacific said: “Globally, we see an optical fiber infrastructure as the enabling building block of smart cities, allowing for the rapid deployment of FTTx services.”
The event – held at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel – saw discussions on some of the hottest topics in the industry, including deep fiber, the Internet of Things and broadband connectivity, as well as ongoing policy and regulation issues. Speakers at the event included representatives from Corning, Viavi Solutions, Fujikura and Huawei.
The Makati project follows on from last week’s announcement that smart cities will be one of FTTH Council Asia-Pacific’s areas of focus for 2017. The FTTH Council Asia-Pacific Annual Conference will take place in New Delhi, India, in May 2017.