Nearshore Americas

Cisco to Help Transform Guadalajara into a Smart City

U.S. networking giant Cisco has agreed to put to use its expertise to help Mexico’s Guadalajara transform itself into Latin America’s first “Creative Digital City.”

In an agreement signed with the Fideicomiso Ciudad Creativa Digital Guadalajara, Cisco has committed to sharing its expertise for the pilot project designed to modernize the city’s infrastructure, telecommunications and urban services.

Guadalajara wants to become a digital media hub for the Hispanic market, fostering creative industries including TV, cinema, interactive multimedia, digital animation, e-learning, apps, and video game development.

Under the project framework, a city-wide Wi-Fi network will connect public administration systems to a command center for easy monitoring of services. From street lighting to parking, and traffic to waste management, everything will run on smart technologies.

Guadalajara’s Creative Digital City project represents a smart city prototype for Mexico and Latin America. The aim is to use new technologies to enhance the quality of life and the potential for people to develop innovative ideas.

It is premature to predict what a smarter Guadalajara will look like, but in any smart city there will be networks of sensors that offer information about how traffic is flowing or where water pipes are leaking.

“This endeavor is part of Cisco’s strategy in Mexico to support the country in their development of smart cities nationwide,” said Jordi Botifoll, President of Cisco in Latin America.

The U.S. firm has been involved in developing more than 60 smart cities around the world, including Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Guayaquil, Ecuador.

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“This is the first step towards ‘improving quality of life of the inhabitants of Guadalajara and Jalisco,” stated Mauricio Navarro, President of the Fideicomiso Ciudad Creativa Digital Guadalajara.

Narayan Ammachchi

News Editor for Nearshore Americas, Narayan Ammachchi is a career journalist with a decade of experience in politics and international business. He works out of his base in the Indian Silicon City of Bangalore.

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