Solingen enjoys an excellent reputation as a center of the cutlery industry. Around 90 percent of the German cutlery industry is based in the North Rhine-Westphalian city, and companies from Solingen are world leaders in the manufacture of blades in particular. Due to this the independent city officially calls itself the “City of Blades”.
This tradition, which is several hundred years old, is by no means to be abandoned; at the same time, there are plans for a digitalisation strategy that will pave the way for Solingen to become a smart city. For this reason, Solingen Town Hall and Lord Mayor Tim Kurzbach organized a digitalisation symposium on 17 April 2018, at which one of the goals formulated in front of more than 300 participants from business, administration, politics and citizens was that Solingen should become more citizen-friendly.
A first step in this direction is an app designed to make it easier for Solingen’s citizens to deal with the authorities. The “Solingen app”, which is currently under development, provides support when filling out forms, for example, and provides information about municipal services such as bus transport and waste collection. It makes it possible to access the city’s online services conveniently in a chat without having to click through a menu structure first.
Another app presented at the symposium is already in use. With the “between the lines” app, young people can find out who they can turn to if they find themselves in emergency situations and need help or no longer feel able to cope with stress. Originally launched as a project in Solingen, the app is now attracting attention nationwide, is supported by numerous aid organisations and is used in various cities.
While the focus of the apps is primarily on citizens, the economy also plays an important role in Solingen’s digitalisation plans. For example, local retailers are to be strengthened in the face of competition from online stores. “Solingen’s retail sector needs to move closer together,” says Jan Höttges, Chairman of the Solingen Initiative Group. That is why the city and retailer association are jointly developing an online platform that connects all Solingen retailers. At the same time, the tourism aspect is also being taken into account, so that information on culture, hotels, restaurants and events can be found there. According to Höttges, administrative processes often slow down entrepreneurial action, which is why he welcomes the city’s digitalisation strategy and is convinced: “With increasing digitalisation, everyday life in the city will change dramatically. Life will become more diverse and more pleasant.”
However, the necessary basis for Solingen’s efforts to become a smart city is a high-performance digital infrastructure. At the digitisation symposium, Solingen’s Lord Mayor Tim Kurzbach commented on the broadband expansion undertaken for this purpose: “The combination of subsidized expansion in underserved areas, self-funded expansion for commercial enterprises and the connection of all schools with fiber optic connections by the city itself takes us a significant step further towards a gigabit society. The goal remains access for all households and companies to gigabit networks by 2025.”
In order to achieve this goal, the broadband expansion of the city of Solingen is being funded by the Federal Ministry for Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) with over 7.7 million euros from the federal broadband funding programme to cover a profitability gap. The city of Solingen will also receive the same amount from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
This should enable over 3,800 households to benefit from transmission speeds of at least 50 Mbit/s and 150 companies from 1 Gbit/s and higher by the end of 2018. Thanks to the broadband expansion, all applications currently available on the market and those foreseeable in the coming years, such as high-bit-rate video streams, can be used securely. In the future, the provision of high symmetrical bandwidths will be an important location factor for companies, which will strengthen Solingen as a business location and counteract the migration of tradespeople to alternative areas.
The strengthening of underserved areas in Solingen through high-performance digital infrastructure made possible by the federal broadband funding programme will also mean that existing transport systems in the centers can be further expanded and will also be available to residents outside the centers. This initially concerns the fibre optic-based control of traffic sign systems, which can then be extended and optimized to the outer areas. This will make it possible to further optimize the flow of traffic from the residential areas on the outskirts into the inner city areas.
Stadtwerke Solingen’s passenger information system can also be extended to the outlying areas thanks to a high-performance digital infrastructure. The passenger information system has been continuously expanded since 2013. Until now, it has been difficult to extend the system to outlying areas due to a lack of network access. With the supply network, dynamic information boards along complete routes will be possible in the future.
The foundations have therefore been laid on the road to Smart City Solingen. However, it is just as important for the region that Wuppertal and the Bergisches Land region have been awarded the contract as a digital model region. This opens up options for the city triangle of Solingen, Wuppertal and Remscheid at the level of research projects. For local authorities and their businesses, the status of a digital model region also means enormous advantages in the provision of public services and thus a considerable gain in the competition between locations.
Photos: Impressions of the digitisation symposium on 17.04.2018 in Solingen.
Photo credits: Klingenstadt Solingen