Loveland, OH and Cincinnati Bell are partnering to bring smart city capabilities and free public WiFi to most of the city’s downtown. The service provider’s UniCity Smart City practice has deployed the technology to the area from the Little Miami River to the East Loveland Nature Preserve.
“Cincinnati Bell has been connecting businesses and customers for almost 150 years, and our Wi-Fi and Smart City partnership with the City of Loveland continues this tradition,” Jason Praeter, the President of Cincinnati Bell’s Entertainment & Communications business, said in a press release. “Connectivity is particularly critical given the challenges we are facing as a community, and Cincinnati Bell and UniCity are proud to be working with leadership from the City of Loveland on this important economic development initiative.”
The service provider has rolled out UniCity platforms to Dayton, Fairborn, Wyoming and Lockland, Ohio and Covington and Boone County, KY.
One ramification of the broad potential of smart cities is that its definition is vague and open-ended. Therefore service providers and municipalities can easily self-identify as being “smart.” It’s also true that more communities are expanding functionality regardless of label.
Cincinnati Bell announced its Dayton UniCity project in September, 2019. The provider said that it would donate upfront charges to deploy smart city functionality in the historic Oregon District of the city. The project includes analytics and engagement software, cameras and links from the WiFi portal to enable easy contact with legislators and to make donations to The Dayton Foundation.
