ACMA issues a paper about IoT regulatory policy in Australia

Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) publishes a paper titled Internet of Things in media and communications. The paper deals with the impacts of IoT across the media and communication environment. It analyzes existing IoT applications and devices (for consumers and the industry), market usage trends, and regulatory implications. The paper examines four relevant regulatory areas and explains ACMA’s policy in each of these areas: network infrastructure, spectrum management, equipment standards, and consumer safeguards. Looking ahead, in the short term, ACMA plans to monitor spectrum demand drivers, to allocate activities according to the spectrum program, to update licensing arrangements to support IoT, to collect data on IoT use and consumer awareness, and to comply with international standards bodies. In the long term, ACMA plans to monitor standards developments, to review Australian IoT regulatory settings, to conduct IoT usage trends research and to tighten the work with multiple stakeholders such as industry, consumer groups, regulators and equipment vendors.