The always-on internet-of-things opportunity

The number of internet devices inside our homes and offices continues to grow at an amazing pace. The average Australian household now has 22 internet connected devices, and that’s expected to jump to 40 devices by the end of the decade.

But as our everyday home and working lives become more and more connected, there’s another internet revolution happening right in front of us in our public spaces - with a whole host of new business opportunities to go along with it.

The IoT revolution

Worldwide, the number of connected devices comprising the Internet of things (IoT) will likely reach more than 17 billion this year and that number is expected to nearly double again by 2030.

Across the board, the growth of the IoT market is huge. There’s more than 8.6 million Australian homes and businesses that can use nbn’s network to connect multiple IoT devices, including smart washing machines, power systems or smart irrigation.

But there’s also IoT-connected systems that exist out in our communities in places that don’t actually have a physical address. They’re not in people's homes or offices, but at places like road intersections, public parks and water pipelines.

Used for everything from traffic management, to helping us make smarter use of energy, Internet of Things (IoT) devices are enabling intelligent monitoring and control of assets and systems that have traditionally been either “on” or “off”.

They’re often located outdoors and need a different, specialised connectivity solution. As these IoT solutions evolve, demand for these specialised ‘non-premises’ connections is growing rapidly.

In the study Fibre-Based Non-Premises Connectivity Enables Success in High-Bandwidth IoT Use Cases, conducted on behalf of nbn, international tech research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) estimated that in line with the global IoT trend, demand for specialised non-premises IoT connections is also going to grow significantly in Australia. With a five-fold increase in connection numbers, data traffic is also projected to jump a massive 21 times by 2030. Remember, that’s just connections to places that don’t have a fixed address.

In the past, getting appropriate connections to locations outside conventional businesses and home addresses has been challenging. But now, with smaller, smarter networking equipment and more fibre being rolled out than ever before, thankfully, that situation is changing and will help Australia to keep up with IoT’s potential.

Located anywhere and working in real-time

IoT devices can be located almost anywhere, and can help with a diverse range of things - from controlling watering systems in parks and managing power transmission infrastructure, to providing high-definition video links for security and public safety cameras. There’s enormous potential there with the ability to make our communities safer, more convenient, greener, and more cost-effective to manage.

Because they’re always-on, IoT systems need robust, reliable connections that support 24/7 operations. They’re often monitoring activities live and making changes in real-time, which means low latency (minimising the time between data being sent and received) is a must to keep things running smoothly.

It’s important to remember that not all IoT use cases are the same, and some require very high levels of reliability and capacity to do important jobs, even if they’re located in the middle of nowhere. They’re requirements that are often better served when those applications are connected directly to high speed, reliable full fibre networks.

Take for example, security and public safety cameras. While 4K high-definition video looks wonderful on our TVs, the security industry is now adopting super high-definition 8K video, which can provide very detailed imagery that can help prevent and deter crime in places like car parks, stadiums and airports.

With four times the resolution of 4K video, 8K generates a huge amount of data that needs to be reliably transmitted instantly. When public safety is an issue, glitches and service interruptions aren’t acceptable, so connections must be not only fast and high capacity, but also super reliable.

nbn full fibre, with its reliability, high capacity and low latency is well suited for these types of applications^.

A growing opportunity for service providers and businesses

The growth in demand for IoT services represents a new opportunity for service providers and other innovative businesses in Australia.

nbn developed Smart Places* specifically to help meet this new?demand for specialised connections, offering wholesale fibre services and specialised rugged small-format network hardware – which is designed to address the requirements of IoT services.? The Smart Places Network Termination Device (NTD) can fit in the palm of your hand and is hardened to work under high temperatures up to an impressive 85°C - vital in a sun-burned country like Australia.

Smart Places allows almost anyone to tap into the huge growth in demand for IoT services. Partnering with nbn, service providers can expand beyond the conventional business, government and residential markets and offer new IoT-focused products.

Smart Places can also help IoT-focused businesses to expand their customer offering to include purpose-built connectivity services that can support the other services and hardware that they sell.

IDC’s report predicts annual revenue growth of more than 20 per cent in the non-premises connection market in the years up to 2030, so now is an ideal time for service providers and other businesses serving the IoT market to consider adding purpose-built Smart Places services to their offerings.

If you want to find out more about how nbn is helping build the Internet of Things market in Australia, contact your preferred service provider to find out if your location is eligible and submit an nbn Smart Places order with us*. Alternatively, if providing IoT internet services sounds like a great opportunity, you can find out more about how nbn and your business can start working together.

^ Your experience, including the speeds actually achieved over the nbn network, depends on the nbn access network technology and configuration over which services are delivered to your premises, whether you are using the internet during the busy period, and some factors outside nbn’s control (like your equipment quality, software, broadband plan, signal reception and how your service provider designs its network).

* nbn is accepting applications for builds to non-premises locations in our existing nbn Ready For Services (RFS) footprint and new developments. Service connectivity availability will depend on service providers offering nbn Smart Places, and timing of product availability will be at provider discretion.