Commission and industry join forces to build €600M mobile Internet of the Future

A €600 million programme to increase the capacity and security of the Internet, enabling it to connect to a far wider range of machines and objects, gets off the ground this week, with the European Commission committing €300 million over five years. Projects approved to date will together receive €90 million in EU funding, to be matched by project partners.

The Internet as it exists at present – largely connecting computer to computer - is not capable of managing the future data streams that will be generated as wireless networks enable mobile phones and many other machines and objects to be connected. Nor is the Internet as it operates at present able to provide the desired accuracy, resilience and safety.

According to the Commission, the internet economy will account for 5.8 per cent of GDP, or almost €800 billion, by 2014.

“But we are only at the beginning of the internet era,” said Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda, announcing the programme. “Europe must mobilise all its talent to keep ahead in this sector.” This is not only important in competitive terms but also to safeguard European values like privacy, openness, and diversity.

“We should use public finances in a smart way to leverage industry investment - if we don't invest and innovate first, our global competitors will,” Kroes said.

Internet data traffic is growing by 60 per cent every year and he Internet now delivers many essential services. In future it will support many new services in areas including mobility, energy saving, healthcare and governance.

In all, 152 organisations have committed to take part in the partnership to build Europe's Internet of the future. Private companies, research organisations and the public sector have committed to match the EU's funding of €90 million for the first phase of the programme.

The initiative will build upon existing EU-funded research, working with partners at national and regional level to develop new technologies, services and business models for the Internet of the future.

Building a standardised and interoperable platform

The main project announced this week, FI-WARE will receive €41 million in EU funding to develop the core platform tools needed to build future Internet services, such as privacy, real-time processing and cloud computing. The toolbox will be open for anyone to contribute. To jump-start the project, a set of large-scale trials of Internet-based services and applications will take place in cities including Stockholm and Santander.

In addition, there will be eight focussed projects, each receiving roughly € 5 million in funding over 2 years, to address how the Internet can be applied to:

• environmental data in the public domain (ENVIROFI)
• making the food value-chain smarter (SMARTAGRIFOOD)
• reaping the benefits of electricity management at community level (FINSENY)
• making public infrastructure in urban areas more intelligent and efficient (OUTSMART). This project in London, Berlin, Aarhus, Santander and Trento, will develop systems to deal with transport and environment, waste management, water and sewage, smart metering and street lighting, and water and environment, respectively.
• networked media, including gaming (FI-CONTENT)
• increasing efficiency in international logistics value-chains (FINEST)
• personal mobility (INSTANT MOBILITY)
• making urban public areas safer (SAFECITY).

The Future Internet Public Private Partnership programme involves 152 different organisations. (see www.fi-ppp.eu). The first phase will last for two years from 2011-2012, and develop the toolbox of generic services for preparing the large scale trial.

The second phase (2013-14) will involve large scale trials of Internet services and applications in a wide range of domains across Europe. The third phase (2014-2015) will be dedicated towards transforming these trials into digital ecosystems.