Ericsson study shows how Internet facilitates smart choices in city life

Global telecoms equipment provider Ericsson has published its latest ConsumerLab report, entitled “Smart Citizens: How the internet facilitates smart choices in city life.”

The study covers 9 cities worldwide—Beijing, Delhi, London, New York, Paris, Rome, São Paulo, Stockholm and Tokyo—and explores how as citizens become smarter, so do the cities they inhabit. The report explores different concepts that will enable people to take a more proactive and participatory role in city life, from digital health monitoring to interactive road navigation and social bike and car sharing.

Michael Björn, Head of Research at Ericsson ConsumerLab, says: “Citizens want current players to internet-enable their services. This means for example that city authorities are expected to provide ICT services related to traffic, public services and water quality.”

He adds: “Interestingly, for all the concepts tested, citizens who live in the central parts of the cities are more interested in the concepts than those who live in suburbs. Also, the young and full time workers are those with the overall highest predicted daily use of the concepts, and the ones who will most actively push cities to grow smarter.”

Looking at the city-specific findings, he says: “Delhi, Beijing and São Paulo score very high on usefulness ratings for all concepts we tested–whereas Paris, London and Stockholm score significantly lower. For example, only 41 percent in Stockholm–a city known for its great drinking water quality–find the water quality checker concept to be of use, compared to 92 percent for Delhi.”

This study was conducted online in September 2014 with 9,030 iPhone and Android smartphone users aged between 15 and 69. Respondents were from Beijing, Delhi, London, New York, Paris, Rome, São Paulo, Stockholm and Tokyo, representing 61 million citizens. Written statements outlining the concepts tested were rotated so that each respondent saw two thirds of all services.

Ericsson ConsumerLab is a global consumer research unit that studies consumer use of, and attitudes to, ICT in more than 40 countries annually. As Ericsson’s voice of the consumer externally and internally, Ericsson ConsumerLab helps customers as well as industry organizations and policy makers to understand the implications of consumer needs.