Smart City: Mexico City’s project

Mexico City, one of the most populated cities in the world, with 22 million inhabitants, is making progress in its Smart City project, according to a report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

As for the Public Network, the city government offers free WiFi service and in November 2021 won the Guinness World Record for the most connected city in the world.

The capital’s 21,500 free internet points put it ahead of other cities such as Moscow, Seoul and Tokyo.

However, users complain about its slow speed, mainly in central areas.

The Internet access service has a transfer rate of 200 Mbps and a user profile of 5 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream.

The authorities highlighted this as one of the most relevant smart city projects in their portfolio.

The projects that seek to turn Mexico City into a smart city are led by the Digital Agency for Public Innovation (ADIP), created from the Digital Operation and Innovation Law, whose responsibility is to lead, design and oversee the implementation of data management policies, open government, digital government, technological and infrastructure governance.

Smart City

The ADIP develops its own software and digital systems through the General Directorate of Technological Operation, which functions as a software factory, which represents a relevant differential with respect to the other cities surveyed since this feature allows it to accelerate processes of generation of digital tools.

Also, according to ECLAC, the General Directorate of Technological Operation is composed of the following areas: Technological Development; Development of Mobile Platforms; Technological Infrastructure; and Software Development Control.

Mexico City (CDMX) in 2019 had a GDP of 192,291 million dollars, an amount similar to that of the economies of Greece, Peru or Hungary.

Like the City of Buenos Aires, its population within the Federal District reaches 9.2 million, but its entire metropolitan area has approximately 22 million inhabitants.

According to the National Survey on Availability and Use of Information Technologies in Households (ENDUTIH), 2020, published by INEGI, the CDMX is the 12th Mexican locality with the highest penetration of fixed Internet access and the 2nd in browsing speed. 99.6% of households had internet access with a speed of 65.39 Mbps, vs. the national average of 35.91 Mbps (Q3 2021).