Published on the 21/07/2016 | Written by Beverley Head

Independent not-for-profit ‘Internet of Things Alliance Australia (IoTAA) established, works on regulatory and operational frameworks…

Emerging out of the Communications Alliance, the body was conceived by an IoT think tank set up in May last year. A subsequent report Enabling the Internet of Things for Australia suggested at the time that Australia was lagging international peers in terms of the focus being placed on IoT both at an industry and Government level.

Initial members of the executive council, besides the Communications Alliance, include the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, CSIRO, the Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet, and a range of industry players including NBN, Telstra, IBM, Intel and Optus.

The inclusion of the ACCC and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and Privacy Commissioner should help ensure that the rights of the consumer are not overlooked in the race to enterprise efficiency.

IoTAA was launched at an event in Sydney this week by the shadow minister for communications, Jason Clare, who noted that; “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.”

“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.”

Six workstreams are already being tackled including spectrum availability and management, network resilience, industry verticals, data sharing and privacy, and how to foster IoT startups.

Executive Council Chairman John Stanton told iStart that progress was being made with regard to spectrum allocation, and that the Australian Communications and Media Authority was “switched on” to the need to determine IoT spectrum. One advantage, he said, was that IoT devices typically needed relatively low bandwidth.

Areas which still needed substantial work included a review of the regulations regarding encryption and interception, and their impact on IoT deployments, and how to balance the need for data sharing with consumer privacy.

Stanton also said the organisation was concerned that IoT was not registering highly on the Government’s national innovation strategy, in stark contrast to the situation in countries such as India, the UK, Singapore and Korea.

He said this should be addressed as IoT promised “A massive dividend in efficiency. We’ve estimated $116 billion in potential benefits by taking waste out of the supply chain.” There were also export opportunities for Australia, he said, as “This is an area where innovation does not require massive amounts of capital.”

The one possibly contentious name on the IoTAA’s executive council is Chinese company Huawei, which has had a tense relationship with Government and been excluded from multiple tenders over security concerns. Stanton said that as a member of the Communications Alliance Huawei was entitled to be a member of IoTAA, had significant expertise in the IoT arena and was a strong contributor to the organisation.