The smart hub can better connect people to the services and information they need
If smart cities are to become a reality we need to start now
Our cities will need to be smart if they are to adapt to the challenges of today and tomorrow. Just as the modern city presents us with an abundance of new opportunities, it also presents us with new challenges around access to services and information.
A smart approach offers huge potential to build on, and disrupt, what we have today in terms of infrastructure and connectivity on the streets of our villages, towns and cities.
Today, both central and local government must face up to big issues such as the environment, looking to innovative solutions to diminishing air quality. At the same time, we face the complexity of allocating resources efficiently and more equitably, considering those who have been unable to take advantage of new technology and our ever-increasing interconnectedness.
The smart city doesn’t have to be a distant dream
Some imagine smart cities as something belonging to a distant future, or the realm of science fiction; the concept of febrile imagination. But although the smart city does belong to the future, much of what can make cities smart is here today.
It is estimated that by 2020, 20 billion everyday objects will be connected to the internet. This ‘internet of things’ — from washing machines to traffic lights to vehicles to energy systems — will have the capacity to send and receive data, creating an enormous well of information we can harness.
The environment is a good example of this potential. We can employ better connectivity to monitor changes in air quality in real-time, with the information collated used to create dynamic clean air zones and help with future city planning.
The same data will also help inform our approach to transport. It can be harnessed to create public transport systems that adapt instantly to spikes in demand or to disruptions and it can similarly inform the maintenance and development of transport networks in the future.
As we build more efficient public transport, driverless vehicles could also reduce congestion. Algorithms gathered from data could turn these vehicles into collective decision-makers, making our roads more efficient and more environmentally sustainable.
Making the public telephone network smarter
“The future of our towns and cities were central to our vision when we designed the Smart Hub” — Ashley Smatt, Maximus Founder
At Maximus, we recognised the need to build the smart city from the ground up, to contribute towards the infrastructure upon which it would rely. Smart hubs can play a major role in collating information on air quality, on traffic flows and on footfall.
Aside from its role in smart cities infrastructure, smart hubs are reimagining public telecommunications for the 21st century. Smart hubs can successfully replace many public telephone units across the country. The upgrading of the UK’s public telephone infrastructure offers huge potential. Not merely helping people to connect in the present, but powering how we might connect people, places and things in the future.
It will also help to connect individuals left isolated by an ever-deepening digital divide and then connect those individuals to their communities, in doing so helping to reinvigorate our high streets.
Reimagining telecommunications for a digital age
When we think about the telephone box, our minds conjure up pictures of cherry-red booths on chocolate box village streets or outside iconic landmarks. But more often than not, the reality is that all too often our mostly urban phone boxes are neglected, badly maintained and a focus for vandalism. All too often our phone boxes are left cluttering public space as neglected relics of a bygone age.

By focusing on what people want, and what is most practicable, we at Maximus have invested extensively in creating hubs that are sleek and elegant in design. With its contemporary style, Maximus hubs show that modern planning does not have to unimaginative, but rather that we can combine modern design with something that is pleasing on the eye.
But this is not simply about aesthetics. Telephone boxes are part of our public infrastructure and like railway lines and utilities, their purpose is governed only by the laws of public demand.
“Our objective is not a break from the past, instead we seek to innovate public telecommunications for the 21st century” — Ashley Smatt
Connecting people and their communities
The internet’s rapid growth has meant we are more connected than ever before. The benefits of this transformation for society are manifest, but we must also recognise their uneven distribution; uneven between urban and rural, high and low income.
Smart hubs represent the means to connect more people than ever before, especially those left behind by the digital age or in places where connectivity is poor. The hubs were designed with accessibility at the forefront of our minds and are consequently easy to use and access.
They can also help to provide free internet access for those most cut off from connectivity; the disabled, the financially disadvantaged and the homeless. In New York for instance, where similarly smart hubs were successfully pioneered, the most dialled number was a benefit transfer system which distributes food stamps.
The smart hub also has the potential to connect communities. It has the capacity to provide important public safety functions such as access to emergency services. But aside from these functions it can provide numerous other social benefits such as access to government service, wayfinding, phone charging, WiFi access, public transport updates, monitoring of traffic and pedestrian flows.

Invigorating high streets and city centres
In helping to make our communities more connected than ever before, we can also unlock the bound-up potential of our public spaces. The Smart Hub can help to provide the high street with much-needed reinvigoration, acting as a conduit for local businesses. They can also help to boost tourism, easing the worries of travellers by providing recommendations on the best bars and restaurants and the best local attractions. They can provide a similar function in helping to promote and improve access to local arts and cultural events.
The smart city of the future will not be built on the abstract ideas for an imagined future. Instead they will be built on practical solutions and innovation. Smart hubs will help to create the infrastructure upon which the smart city will rely, as it is built from the ground upwards.
by Max
