Power and automation technology firm ABB has been awarded a lucrative contract by a leading Swedish energy firm to develop and implement smart city solutions in the city of Vasteras.

A Brazilian telecom operator has disclosed its intentions to launch a 'Smart Cities' platform that will be targeted at both public and private sector. Brazilian company Oi, formerly known as Telemar, is the largest telecommunications company in Brazil and South America and is headquartered in Rio de Janeiro.

Japanese conglomerate NEC Corporation has officially announced that NEC Iberica, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NEC Europe Ltd., and Murcia City, Spain, have signed an agreement to develop an "innovation center" in collaboration with the University of Murcia.

Swedish network provider Blink Services, which provides LoRaWAN for 'smart city' solutions has announced that it has selected its partner for its nationwide Internet of Things program. Multi-Tech Systems has been chosen by the Swedish firm after an intensive vetting process. It has been reported that Multi-Tech's close working relationship and shared partnership with French LPWAN organization Actility played a significant role in the company earning the contract.

ZTE Corporation, a major international provider of telecommunications, enterprise and consumer technology solutions for the Mobile Internet, and Velcom, a branch of A1 Telekom Austria Group, jointly announced the deployment of the first scaled commercial Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) network in Belarus. The network was deployed in Minsk city first and then in other regions accordingly as scheduled. So far, Velcom has verified smart metering and smart city solutions in the network.