A year after introducing Australia's largest Council-owned fibre optic network, the City of Gold Coast has launched Australia's largest and most diverse LoRaWAN network with the capability to support more than 600,000 sensors and real-time management tools.
The network is being made available for commercial use and the deployment of wide-ranging IoT applications including home automation, logistics and wearable technologies.
City of Gold Coast chief innovation and economy officer Ian Hatton says the City has invested in the LoRaWAN network to enable the most diverse range of uses of any network in Australia.
"This is a large-scale LoRaWAN network with coverage across the city that will provide significant opportunities for residents, visitors and businesses on the Gold Coast.
"By using the LoRaWAN technology, which is becoming one of the world's most commonly used networks, we can offer the greatest coverage to support large-scale deployment securely, reliably and cost-effectively.
The National Narrowband Network Co (NNNCo) has been engaged to build and operate the City-owned network.
NNNCo sales head Kat Hunter says the Gold Coast network removed complexity for resellers, enabling them to focus on what they do best.
"The expansion of the NNNCo network across the Gold Coast lets resellers focus on providing solutions and applications to their customers, without getting into a network conversation," Hunter says.
"That has positive benefits for resellers by shortening the sales cycle, and for end customers by focusing their investment on solutions that will positively impact their business.
NNNCo founder and CEO Rob Zagarella adds that the scale of the Gold Coast network was a signal of the fast-growing adoption of IoT by cities both in Australia and globally.
"This is no longer something in the far off future. The entire IoT ecosystem is maturing from devices to connectivity to platforms and the market is ready for massive scale.
"Gold Coast industry has the opportunity to gain real traction with their IoT and digitisation strategies to improve productivity, streamline operations and deliver new and improved services to their markets.
The City of Gold Coast will be the first user of the network with scale implementation of new applications, such as smart water meters, to commence over the coming months.
"We have been successfully running IoT test cases using LoRaWAN technology for the last two years," added Hatton.
"This means that we're ready to rapidly deploy projects across the network, starting with smart water meters. New approaches are also being developed for a range of services, including waste management and parking.
"This will enable us to deliver services more efficiently, whilst at the same time making more information available to residents and visitors to enhance their customer experience, and help them make decisions.
The installation of the LoRaWAN Network improves the City's position as one of Australia's leading digital cities.
City of Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate says the Gold Coast has a vision of being Australia's leading digital city by 2021.
