The Citykey app from Telekom helps with the city and its administration. (Image: Telekom)
All digital citizen services at a glance, send applications from your smartphone to the town hall, report overcrowded dumpsters directly on your mobile phone – all that and more The Citykey administration app promises. Telekom calls it a smart city app and announces it: one app for all cities. The range of functions makes one rejoice, but there is one flaw: Only two city administrations are still participating.
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Digital management from the smartphone
The developers have given the app a whole range of functions. It should not only serve as a form center in which one can apply for a resident parking permit or send other applications using the online function of the identity card. Citizens can also use the software to make appointments with administrative offices and use checklists to check which documents they need. A survey tool can be used to spontaneously perceive the mood in the citizenry. The deficiency reporter by photo and including the exact location is used to notify the city administration of defective lanterns, overcrowded trash cans or other irregularities. The contents of the news portal and the event calendar can be searched and shared with others. Another area gives tips on sights and other interesting places in the city. The garbage calendar should be able to remind of garbage collection dates – Telekom will deliver it soon with an update.
From 2022 online administration mandatory
The group explains in its blog that 56 percent of citizens are not satisfied with the digital services offered by the administrations. They are working flat out on solutions, as they are required by law to offer all services online by 2022. At the start of Citykey, Telekom initially only has two cities in its program: Siegburg and Hennef in North Rhine-Westphalia. The developers seem to first show what is possible and can then win new communities in the next step. Telekom states that the app is based on open source modules and was developed in cooperation with citizens, representatives of cities and municipalities and technology experts. Thanks to an open and expandable platform, the app can be individually adapted or further developed for the municipalities.
