Internet of Things Alliance Australia launches

A coalition of industry and government stakeholders has launched the Internet of Things Alliance Australia (IoTAA) to help the nation seize the opportunities presented by the IoT.

The independent, non-profit alliance has been formed by more than 200 individual experts and more than 100 organisations, including industry groups representing more than 60,000 Australian businesses.

The IoTAA was developed out of an IoT think tank created by Communications Alliance, the industry body representing Australia’s telecom sector.

It will initially be hosted by the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) at its Broadway campus and overseen by an executive council consisting of organisations including ACMA, the ACCC, ACCAN, AIG and the AIIA, as well as numerous companies and multiple government agencies.

The alliance is currently engaged in six work streams, including ensuring spectrum availability, network resiliency, industry verticals, data sharing and privacy, as well as how to foster IoT start-ups.

At the launch, Shadow Minister for Communications Jason Clare said the IoT — paired with 5G mobile technology — has the potential to transform industries and economies and foster unparalleled analytical power. But he added that Australia must act quickly to seize these opportunities.

“If we don’t get our skates on we will be left behind. A lot of countries are already ahead of us when it comes to IoT. If we don’t turn this around we will miss out on a lot of new jobs, more investment and new businesses,” he said.

More than 14 billion devices are connected to the internet worldwide, and this is projected to increase to around 26 billion by 2020 and as much as 1 trillion by 2035.

The IoTAA noted that networks optimised for the IoT are starting to be developed in Australia. The University of Wollongong Innovation Campus and Australia’s Meshed have launched a publicly accessible LoRaWAN network in Wollongong and plan a similar launch in Sydney.

LoRaWAN is a low-power wide area network standard developed for IoT devices that require low bandwidth compared to mobile devices.

The IoTAA Executive Council consists of:

• Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)
• Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN)
• Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)
• Australian Industry Group (AIG)
• Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA)
• Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA)
• Business Council of Australia (BCA)
• Communications Alliance
• Creator Tech
• CSIRO
• Department of Communications and the Arts (DoCA)
• Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C)
• Ericsson
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise
• Huawei
• IBM
• Intel
• Internet Australia
• Knowledge Economy Institute (KEi)
• KPMG
• nbn
• Nokia
• Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)/Australian Privacy Commissioner
• Optus
• Telstra

Image courtesy ITU.