Today, US Ignite announced the selection of the Institute for Digital Progress to serve as the key innovation partner for the city of Phoenix as a Smart Gigabit Community. Earlier this year in his state of the city address, city of Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton announced that Phoenix would join US Ignite’s Smart Gigabit Communities program. Phoenix’s participation in this project was made possible by a generous, three-year, $300,000 grant from Cox Communications. The Smart Gigabit Communities program was initiated in 2015 by US Ignite and the National Science Foundation. Communities across the country are building a living lab of test beds for a sustainable smart gigabit applications ecosystem.
“As a Smart Gigabit Community, Phoenix is able to provide the best tools to our entrepreneurs to help them build their companies and create real solutions for our Phoenix residents, businesses and overall community,” said Mayor Stanton. “US Ignite and Cox chose a great partner. The city of Phoenix has worked with the Institute for Digital Progress for more than two years to support smart-city technologies and to grow our startup ecosystem.”
iDP will empower the Phoenix community and provide the needed support and infrastructure to develop six smart gigabit applications that address local needs such as infrastructure, workforce development, public safety, education and community health. The development of these six smart gigabit applications is required by all communities participating in the Smart Gigabit Communities program. These applications will dramatically impact and shape the way that residents of Phoenix live, work and play. In addition, Phoenix will be able to share in the dozens of smart gigabit applications developed in the 20 other cities participating in the Smart Gigabit Community program.
“We were thrilled when Phoenix signed on as a Smart Gigabit Community, and we are more optimistic than ever now that iDP will lead the community’s innovation efforts,” said William Wallace, executive director of US Ignite. “We strongly support iDP’s mission of transforming Phoenix into a major hub of smart-city technology driven by civic innovation, and we are confident they will be the catalyst for many exciting technological developments in Phoenix.”
“It is an honor to be named the innovation partner for the Smart Gigabit Community initiative,” said Dominic Papa, founder of iDP. “This initiative represents a new type of metropolitan leadership in Phoenix, one that puts the citizen at the heart of its vision. Working together with US Ignite, Cox and the city of Phoenix will allow us to foster large-scale entrepreneurship around our city’s most pressing urban issues. It will put the power back in the hands of the people and empower them to develop the next-generation digital solutions that will profoundly impact the way we live, work and learn.”
Cox began rolling out gigabit internet speeds to residential customers in Phoenix in 2014. Cox Business has been offering multi-gig speeds to businesses in Phoenix since 2007. The applications and technological advancements resulting from the Smart Gigabit Community program will leverage this ultrafast, high-speed broadband network.
US Ignite has organized local communities and assisted in building more than 100 next-generation application profiles over the past three years. Each participating community receives access to a low-latency and ultrafast network with local cloud computing and storage capabilities that will support highly interactive and visually immersive experiences not possible on today’s commercial internet.
