Welcome to a new year and a new decade in which we will see the rubber really hitting the road for IoT here in New Zealand.
The Executive Council had our kick off meeting for the year and the key theme we discussed was around how we can continue to support and drive IoT here in NZ.
At a high level we see collaboration and education/training are key areas to explore. For example, given the important role that AI has in finding the insights in the large volumes of IoT value available, we are seeing much more cross-functional collaboration between subject matter experts such as data scientists, engineers, scientists and business stakeholders. This is also true of complementary technologies such as AR/VR, blockchain, edge computing, digital twins and of course underpinned by 5G. See this article for more details on top iot trends to watch for in 2020.
This is being supported and confirmed from a technology perspective where progress is being made on bringing together all the data and allowing cross functional collaboration in a way that delivers value. When you combine this with the key focus areas on Smart Cities, i4.0, energy, healthcare etc we will see new partnerships being formed to accelerate value.
These trends have been echoed locally with the Collaborative Pilot Working Group that is being chaired by Sandra Laws from MBIE, part of the IOT Alliance Executive Council. There have been great learnings to date and as a result, we are exploring ways to extend the trial. We’ll keep you updated with progress during the year.
Across the wider community, NZTech will continue working with MBIE over the coming months to develop the Digital Technology Industry Transformation Plan, a national strategy for helping the tech sector grow. If any IoT Alliance members would like to get involved please let the IoT Executive Council know so we can keep you in the loop.
Coming up later this year is the 5th annual New Zealand Cyber-Security Summit, 14 October in Wellington, where IoT is expected to play a major role in the discussions.
We would like to congratulate our very own Janat Maqbool in her newly appointed role as Director for the Smart Cities Council ANZ alongside her role on the Executive Council. In her new role as Smart Cities Principal Advisor for Hamilton City Council, Jannat Maqbool has added a smart cities mini-conference to TechFest 2020 in Hamilton in early March. The session is titled Tech and Data for Sustainable cities and communities the programme is still being developed but get the date in your diary.
Any assistance or feedback that you want to provide to the Executive Council is always appreciated as we continue to drive our NZ IoT Ecosystem.
Ngā mihi nui,
The team at the NZ IoT Alliance
An auction of 5G spectrum will take place in March with 16 blocks of 10MHz spectrum to be made available. These licences will only operate until October 2022, a much shorter period than usual. This makes use of available 3.5GHz spectrum so that operators can begin nationwide systems while more spectrum is made available in the future for higher speed operation. The auction has a reserve of $250,000, bidders need to put down a $500,000 deposit to take part. An allocation has also been made of 50HMz of bandwidth reserved for Māori participation
New Zealand will be trialling the Wisk electric air taxi from Cora, the joint venture is between Boeing and Kitty Hawk corporation. Flights will take place in Canterbury, dates to be announced. Wisk is a pioneer in ‘urban air mobility’. The aircraft is powered by batteries with 12 rotors for vertical lift off and a speed of 160kmh, it has flown over 1,000 times in unmanned trials.
Albatrosses with radar backups have been recruited to spot illegal fishing vessels. By correlating the signals from the seabirds as they search for food with ship tracking data, researchers have found up to one third of vessels turn off tracking to avoid detection. The study was carried out in the Indian Ocean. Similar concerns exist within New Zealand waters, as the NZ marine economic zone is the fourth largest in the world at 1.7 million square kilometres.
Nozomi Networks, Inc., the leader in OT and IoT security, has announced it has deployed its Guardian solution to New Zealand energy and telecoms giant Trustpower, delivering deep asset discovery and improved operational visibility and control over its network.
Wellington Drive Technologies has announced that its world-leading Connect IoT platform has now sold over one million units since its launch in December 2016. This includes approximately 400,000 units sold in 2019.
nCipher Security and DNA Connect have finalised an agreement to offer nCipher’s data protection and cybersecurity solutions across Australia and New Zealand.
Viotel has announced a contract with Watercare for provision of seismic monitoring services for dams, reservoirs and critical infrastructure. Viotel will undertake evaluations of Watercare sites and collaborate with them to provide earthquake ground motion monitoring solutions based on their Smart Box IoT technology coupled with Amazon Web Services.
Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis, 2019 APAC Internet of Things Market: IOT offers US$31.7 billion in opportunities for Communication Service Providers in Asia-Pacific by 2025. “Smart city programs are expected to drive most of the IoT spending in the region, with the transport and logistics as well as the manufacturing segments generating strong demand,” said Nishchal Khorana, Director, ICT Practice.
A new communication protocol ‘Chip’ for smart homes has been announced by Apple, Google, Amazon, and the Zigbee Alliance. The highlight is the unification of any transport protocol, such as wifi, cellular, bluetooth, etc with a single application layer for connected homes. If successful and widely adopted, the Chip will remove some of the existing vendor silos that hinder interoperability and choice of products for consumers. The working group says, “We expect that compliant devices must implement at least one supported technology and not necessarily all.” So accessory manufacturers will just pick the most appropriate technology, while a hub would support all three.
DXC Technology has highlighted digital twins as a business imperative for the next evolution of digital enterprises. According to IDC, 30% of G2000 companies will be using data from digital twins of IoT-connected products and assets in 2020, achieving gains of up to 25% in the optimisation of product development and overall equipment effectiveness.
Attend MedCan 2020, New Zealand’s first Medicinal Cannabis summit, to see what opportunities this new industry brings for new IoT deployments.
