Connected for Success: Developing IoT in Australia

Amid Australia’s rapidly evolving connectivity landscape, a strategic partnership emerged in the year 2017 that would go on to redefine device management across the nation. Walt Technologies, a local innovator in connectivity and communications, joined forces with Friendly Technologies, a global leader in carrier-grade device management solutions.

What started as a focused collaboration on a smart metering project rapidly evolved into a long-term alliance that delivered three high-impact initiatives, supporting a major Utility (Southeast Water), a major Australian device vendor Netcomm Wireless in enabling Coca-Cola’s smart vending machine rollout, and equipping ISPs across Australia with state-of-the-art device management platforms.

Through each phase, Friendly’s’ collaboration with Walt Technologies demonstrated how global innovation and local expertise can converge to bring large-scale digital transformations, introducing protocols like LwM2M to Australia and launching a world-first LWM2M Device Management for Smart Meters and solving complex connectivity challenges across industries.

Project 1: Smarter Water Management with Southeast Water

Walt Technologies first teamed up with Friendly Technologies in 2017 to support a specialized project for Southeast Water, one of Australia’s major utilities. As part of their smart meter infrastructure strategy, Southeast Water needed to implement test and certification processes for a new generation of smart meters.

The requirements were clear:

• Seamless connectivity and provisioning for thousands of metering endpoints

• Remote monitoring and control for optimal operations and energy optimisation

• Secured and highly efficient Firmware over the Air (FotA) updated

• Secure encrypted and automated meter reads

• A secure, scalable, and interoperable device management platform

Walt Technologies introduced Friendly Technologies’ IoT Device Management Platform, which offered precisely the level of control and flexibility Southeast Water needed. Friendly’s support for Lightweight M2M (LwM2M) was particularly transformative, enabling efficient communication with constrained IoT devices while maintaining high security and low bandwidth usage.

Impact Highlights:

• Enabled robust smart meter testing and certification processes

• Introduced LwM2M protocol capabilities into the Australian market

• Set the stage for future utilities to adopt similar frameworks globally

This project proved to be the catalyst for broader adoption of IoT management technologies across other sectors.

Scaling New Heights: Coca-Cola’s 80,000 Vending Machines & Beyond

Shortly after the Southeast Water project, Walt Technologies engaged in a new endeavor, this time involving NetComm Wireless and their client, Coca-Cola. The challenge? Seamlessly connect and manage 80,000 Coca-Cola Freestyle machines, each outfitted with a 4G IIoT router, spread across North America.

Friendly Technologies’ Device Management Platform really rose to the occasion. With features like bulk onboarding, real-time diagnostics, and remote firmware management, Friendly’s solution was a spot-on fit for a multi-nation rollout of this scale – no worries. It ensured:

• Consistent device health monitoring

• Rapid provisioning

• Secure remote updates

• Centralized performance insights

This deployment not only elevated Coca-Cola’s operational efficiency but also cemented Friendly Technologies as the go-to platform for large-scale IoT deployments in numerous regions.

Overcoming Critical Market Challenges

With momentum building, Walt Technologies saw a broader market opportunity — bringing Friendly’s technology to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) across the country. At the time, ISPs in Australia faced a number of systemic challenges.

Among them, two key challenges really stood out.

1. Lack of LwM2M Functionality in the Market

With the rise of low-power, low-bandwidth IoT devices – particularly in utility and industrial sectors – there was a clear need for a modern device management protocol that could support constrained environments. The global industry was beginning to rally around Lightweight M2M (LwM2M), but in 2017, the Australian market had no mature solutions supporting this protocol.

This created a major barrier for organizations like Southeast Water and others planning large-scale smart device deployments. They needed a solution that could:

• Support low-cost, low-power devices over cellular and LPWAN networks

• Enable remote firmware updates, diagnostics, and monitoring

• Automate the secure encrypted meter reads

• Offer secure and efficient communication using limited bandwidth

Walt Technologies saw the opportunity to fill this gap and introduced Friendly Technologies’ LwM2M platform, making it the first commercially available LwM2M solution deployed in Australia. This was a pivotal move that gave Australian utilities and IoT providers the protocol support they needed to scale.

2. Lack of Vendor Support for TR-069 in the ISP Sector

At the same time, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) across Australia were struggling with another widespread challenge: a lack of local vendor support for TR-069.

Despite being the industry-standard protocol for managing broadband CPE (Customer Premises Equipment), there were no major vendors in the region offering an advanced, fully supported TR-069 platform.

This left ISPs dealing with:

• Manual device configuration and provisioning

• High call center volumes due to poor visibility into customer devices

• Limited ability to push firmware updates or remotely troubleshoot issues

• Lack of conforming to regulatory compliances for speed testing

Recognizing this underserved market, Walt Technologies introduced Friendly’s TR-069 Auto Configuration Server (ACS) platform, complete with remote provisioning, diagnostics, and real-time device telemetry. It was a game-changer for local ISPs, many of whom lacked the resources to build such systems in-house.

By leveraging this platform, ISPs gained:

• Full remote management of Customer Premises Equipment (CPE)

• Support for data, voice, and video services across multiple device types

• Real-time diagnostics, firmware upgrades, and service provisioning

Walt Technologies began offering Friendly’s ACS platform to top tier ISPs, such as Aussie Broadband, AGL, Origin and several other national providers.

Notably, Friendly’s platform didn’t just offer TR-069 support; it also delivered LwM2M, MQTT and USP capabilities, enabling hybrid deployments and futureproofing for emerging device types and protocols.

Through Walt Technologies’ distribution and implementation expertise, Friendly Technologies’ solution quickly became a preferred choice among ISPs for its flexibility, ease of use, and carrier-grade reliability.

Pioneering LwM2M in Australia

Friendly Technologies had already invested in robust LwM2M protocol support, making it one of the first platforms in the world to provide full-scale LwM2M lifecycle management. Walt Technologies saw the opportunity and positioned this offering to utilities, industrial IoT users, and service providers.

Thanks to this early investment:

• Over 100,000 LwM2M devices were connected and managed within the first few years, which has steadily grown to well over 10,000,000 LwM2M devices in the last few years.

• Customers benefited from reduced data transmission costs and highest levels of device and data security.

• Friendly’s platform became a foundational element in Australia’s IoT environment.

Driving Innovation at Every Level

The collaboration between Walt Technologies and Friendly Technologies has been nothing short of revolutionary for the Australian IoT and connectivity landscape. By introducing groundbreaking solutions like LwM2M, providing reliable TR-069 support, and empowering ISPs and enterprises with proactive, intelligent device management tools, they’ve not only solved immediate challenges, they’ve future-proofed an entire nation’s approach to enhanced digital transformation and secured infrastructure.

Together, they’ve shown that true partnership goes beyond distribution … it drives transformation.