It looks as though Ireland will become the first smart island. The Irish government has created a great environment for tech firms to move to. That is due to their great tax incentives, Companies like IBM, Dell, Google and many more have large offices/ labs there. The country has also created quite a budget for the implementation of IoT into their cities and industries. They have already begun in several counties to create smart cities, and smart farms. Its safe to say Ireland has become a Iot Island, a sort of Iot testbed for the entire world.
In the town of Crossmolina in the county Mayo they have already installed a smart city lighting system. This system aims to reduce energy waste by installing smart city lights. The second thing this system does is help out the local residents use their energy more efficiently. This smart city lighting system is being handled by an American Corporation known as Silver Spring Networks. They currently have 23.6 million devices on their networks, and are now in charge of the network in mayo. Mayo isn't the only town or city helping turn Ireland int an IoT Island.
Startup VT networks also is working in Ireland but on a much broader scale. VT networks is attempting to cover the entire nation's IoT network problems by implementing their SigFox network. SigFox is a low power Broad range network that reaches millions of devices from robots to smoke alarms and many others. Right now however VT networks is approaching business around Ireland with their services. Those services include Smart metering, Inventory tracking, as well as security systems. Many farming companies, notice the value of the SigFox IoT network.
Tech Firm giants like Intel, Google, and IBM all have their own projects going on also in Ireland. Intel is helping turn Croke Park into the first IoT sports stadium in the world. IBM has a joint research project going on with the Marine Institute of Ireland to monitor marine life and other aquatic happenings in Ireland. Google has a billion dollar investment riding on a micro-chip produced by Dublin based firm Movidius. Lastly in April it was announced that the mountains of Donegal would become the test site for Chinese company DJL’s rescue drones.
This is exactly what the united states could use. More government funded research and tax incentives for more tech firms with promising ideas to enter the Iot world. It also would take more state governments opening up to the idea of IoT implementation into our cities and towns. This new investment would also bring quite a number of new jobs. Jobs that can provide many college graduates from a variety of majors means to provide for themselves and cultivate new ideas.
for more on this topic you can read the article Silicon-republic wrote. https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/make-ireland-worlds-premier-internet-things-island