Cities and regions increasingly shape how networks are planned, permitted, deployed and integrated into the public realm. Yet slow permitting, planning spread across departments and limited access to public assets still hold back the connectivity that residents and businesses rely on.
Tomorrow, 3 November, we’re launching the playbook: Accelerating Digital Connectivity in Cities: A Playbook for Local Governments, produced with Smart Docklands and CONNECT Centre, in partnership with the City Innovation Network.
The playbook gives local authorities practical guidance for their enabling role, grounded in the realities of deploying digital infrastructure in dense, constrained and fast-changing urban environments.
Who it helps and What it offers
The playbook is developed for local authority officers, elected members and senior leaders who want to work more effectively with the telecoms sector and get more from the assets and processes they already control.
It gives them:
- A staged framework to assess where their city stands, set priorities and decide next steps.
- Faster deployment: simpler permitting, better coordination between departments, and fewer avoidable street works.
- Better use of public assets: how to identify ducts, rooftops, street furniture and other infrastructure, manage it, and open it up for network use.
- Shared infrastructure options: when neutral hosting and similar models cut duplication, cost and disruption.
- Regulatory guidance: what the EU Gigabit Infrastructure Act means for local authorities in practice.
- Lessons from other cities: case studies, checklists and tools from Dublin and other European cities.
Download the playbook
Contact us at info@ngn.ie if you'd like to know more