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Fredericton and Moncton – both located in New Brunswick – have been named among the world's top seven smart communities of 2009.

The announcement was made by the The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) in New York City.

A tale of two Canadian cities

The two Canadian cities were shortlisted from a Top 21 list announced last October by ICF.

Other world cities in ICF's 2009 Top 7 list include Bristol, Virginia, USA; Eindhoven, Netherlands; Issy-les-Moulineaux, France; Stockholm, Sweden and Tallinn, Estonia.

From these seven finalists, the Forum will pick the Intelligent Community of 2009 at an event in New York City on May 15.

The winner will succeed the Gangnam District of Seoul, South Korea, which was 2008's Intelligent Community of the Year.

This year, Canada is the only country with two of its cities in ICF's Top 7 list.

ICF – a think tank studying social development – hosts this high-profile international awards program to recognize communities that have responded exceptionally well to the demands and challenges of a "broadband economy."

Each of this year's top seven cities have designed and deployed innovative broadband applications that benefit their communities in very tangible ways, according to Louis Zacharilla, ICF co-founder.

This is the second successive year Fredericton has made it to ICF's top seven list.   

Entering the eZone

One of this city's chief accomplishments is Fred-eZone -- it's free WiFi program for the entire city . This program makes Fredericton Canada's first free, wireless city.

Fred-eZone is a component of  e-Novations, the city-owned fibre optic network with a 70 per cent penetration rate, and speeds of up to 18 Mbps.

There was a time when broadband was three times costlier in Fredericton than it was in Toronto or Boston. 

But the e-Novations initiative has changed all that dramatically.

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