http://theurbantechnologist.com/2015/02/15/6-inconvenient-truths-about-smart-cities/
The municipal autonomy to fund initiatives to improve themselves impacts the ability to deploy Smart City. projects. According to the British urbanist Rick Robinson ‘ UK cities have autonomy over only about 17% of their funding as compared to an average of 55% across countries represented by the OECD.’ This entails the danger of being left behind in attracting taxpayers. He argues that ‘local authorities in Europe, the United States and Asia have constructed more substantial, multi-million Euro / Dollar business cases to invest their own funds in platforms that combine static open data with realtime data from sensors and infrastructure, and which use social media and smartphones to improve engagement between citizens, communities, businesses and both public- and private-sector service providers.’
more details: http://www.datainnovation.org/2015/02/how-to-finance-a-smart-city/
Smart City as a Customer 