The City of Gold Coast has turned on what, according to supplier National Narrowband Network Company (NNNCo), is Australia’s largest and most diverse LoRaWAN network.
NNNCo says it has the capacity to support more than 600,000 sensors and real-time management tools.
NNNCo announced in August 2018 that it had been awarded the contract to build the network, saying it would cover the entire Gold Coast local government area, in excess of 1,300 square kilometres.
The network is being made available for commercial use and the deployment of a range of IoT applications including home automation, logistics and wearable technologies.
City of Gold Coast chief innovation and economy officer Ian Hatton said the network provided coverage across the city and would provide significant opportunities for residents, visitors and businesses on the Gold Coast.
Hatton said the council had been successfully running IoT test cases using LoRaWAN for the past two years and was now ready to rapidly deploy projects across the network, starting with smart water meters.
Also, he said, new approaches were being developed for a range of services that includes waste management and parking.
“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,” he said.
“By utilising our own network, we anticipate that we’ll be able to save approximately $12 million per annum in avoided costs once all of the IoT systems are installed.”
NNNCo founder and CEO Rob Zagarella said the network would give Gold Coast industry the opportunity to gain real traction with IoT and digitisation strategies to improve productivity, streamline operations and deliver new and improved services.
