The deal sees both companies agreeing on a joint go-to-market strategy, with Nokia’s IoT Device Management Platform (DMP) enabling Optus to provide its customers with simple access to Narrow Band-IoT device data, from low power devices, and remote device management at scale.

Nokia and Optus say they will work together to help create smart cities and support enterprise customers across industries, including mining, utilities and transportation, with anticipated industry applications including cost effective waste management, supply chain optimisation, logistics management and scene analytics for improved safety and security.

Australia's IoT market is estimated to grow to US25 billion by 2024, up from US7.9 billion in 2018, which the two companies say indicates the potential opportunity for them.

Nokia and Optus launched Australia’s first 5G commercial services in early 2019, making Optus the first operator globally to deploy Nokia’s FastMile 5G indoor gateway in a live network, and also successfully launched a 5G Fixed Wireless Access service using the 5G New Radio standard.

“Our strategic alliance with Nokia will standardize and streamline IoT devices under one platform and unlock powerful productivity capabilities to fuel Australia’s digital transformation and its smart cities and smart spaces of the future,” said Deon Liebenberg, Vice President of Product Innovation, Optus Business.

“By collaborating with global technology leaders like Nokia, we’re able to offer Optus customers more value and choice on how they manage their devices and networks. The combined power of Optus’ premium IoT network with Nokia’s state-of-the-art IoT platform, will deliver customers the flexibility to consume this innovative, carrier-agnostic solution as software as a service, platform as a service, or connectivity as a service.”

Anna Wills, Head of Oceania at Nokia, said: “By working with Optus, Nokia can bring to bear its pan-industry experience across these asset-intensive industries.

‘We will enable Optus to expand its offering in these markets, helping its customers to leverage the efficiency and productivity potential of IoT. We believe this agreement with Optus will help more companies build greater resilience into their operations.”