In June 2015 McKinsey Global Institute published a report, The Internet of Things: Mapping the Value Beyond the Hype, that details the economic impact of the Internet of Things on businesses, cities, and local economies. By 2025, the economic impact of city applications for infrastructure or planning could be somewhere between $930 billion to $1.6 trillion per year on a global level.
Click here to read the executive summary and the full report.
The Internet of Things (IoT) often refers to consumer data such as health devices and various apps that report on everything from location frequency to how often you might need to restock your refrigerator. Part of the report specifically examines how cities can benefit from increasing technology in four areas: transportation, public safety and health, resource management, and service delivery. Though McKinsey includes several parts of the wave, something we can see happening in Utah is the impact that applications have on sustaining healthy and robust cities.
As an example, McKinsey points out that “transportation is the largest application and includes Internet-of-Things-based systems to manage traffic flow. There is great economic potential in the use of the Internet of Things that that could come from adjusting commuting schedules based on actual tracking data of public transit systems.” Already, Utah is focusing on building connected roads and local governments are making use of road construction to connect cities and towns with broadband capability. As part of a best practices guide, the Broadband Outreach Center recommends local dig-once policies that will encourage investment and infrastructure expansion to handle the coming tech wave.