Telstra launched an IoT lab in Melbourne, a public space where anyone can create, test and prototype IoT solutions, which the operator described as a “definite game changer for the Australian IoT ecosystem”.

Hakan Eriksson, CTO, said the company hopes university students, startups and multinational companies can work “with some of the best equipment and minds in the business to bring their IoT solution to life”.

The lab will also enable those bodies to assess how their IoT applications and services work on Telstra’s network, through testing in a controlled environment.

Telstra explained the facility is the latest phase in its Innovation Lab initiative, and includes both software and hardware for testing.

The Financial Review quoted Eriksson as saying: “We’re experts in the network part of it, but not in all the applications that run on top such as agricultural applications, power distribution applications or logistics applications… and they are not experts in networks, so we needed a meeting place.”