Every sixth major city offers comprehensive Wi-Fi

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Intelligent garbage cans, free WiFi hotspots and contactless payment at the citizens' office: digital technologies are used very differently in Germany's major cities. This is shown by an analysis of the Smart City Index by the digital association Bitkom. According to the index, nine out of ten cities with 100,000 or more inhabitants (89 percent) offer free public WiFi for residents and visitors.

One in six cities (17 percent) also offer the network outside the city center. Four in ten (38 percent) allow users to surf the public WiFi without restrictions - with no data or time limits. Most cities also allow fees to be paid cashlessly at the town hall. While debit cards (79 percent) are standard, credit cards (7 percent) are rarely accepted.

Mobile payment is also still the absolute exception: india gambling data only three of the 81 cities (4 percent) offer this or are planning to do so. When it comes to waste disposal, three out of ten cities (30 percent) are testing intelligent trash cans or bins that are equipped with fill level sensors.

One in four cities (26 percent) have logistics solutions such as so-called micro hubs or city logistics hubs, which, like intelligent garbage cans, can help reduce traffic in the city center. These and other results of the Bitkom study can be found in the new report "Smart City Index 2019 - How digital are Germany's cities?", which can be downloaded at /Publikationen/Smart-City-Index.

The five categories of administration, IT and communication, energy and environment, mobility and society were taken into account. All 81 German cities with at least 100,000 inhabitants were examined.