Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/qtjjgc/australia_smart) has announced the addition of the "Australia - Smart Infrastructure - Smart Cities 2013 Edition" report to their offering.

This report first goes into detail about the two key infrastructure elements needed for smart communities, high-speed telecommunications infrastructure and smart grids. Special attention is give to developments in M2M (Internet of Things) and the potential role of artificial intelligence. It describes the developments that are taking place internationally and in Australia. It also highlights the role of both federal and local government and key elements of smart communities, such as e-health, e-education, e-government, smart transport and smart cars. In addition it addresses policy issues needed to move these developments further and explains how this will have an effect on the social and economic developments of local communities, and indeed on the country as a whole.

The concept of smart communities is based on intelligent infrastructure such as broadband (FttH) and smart grids, so that connected and sustainable communities can be developed. However, before these smart communities can be built, trans-sector policies and strategies need to be developed.

This report discusses and provides examples of some of the developments taking place around the world towards building smart cities and communities.

The Internet of Things' - other names used include: M2M, Pervasive Internet and Industrial Internet - is going to be a real game-changer. It will transform every single sector of society and the economy and it will be out of this environment that new businesses - and indeed new industries - will be born. This is one of the reasons so many overseas ICT companies are increasing their presence in Australia. The NBN is an ideal test-bed for such developments. A great deal of attention is being paid to cloud computing and the NBN can be viewed as one gigantic cloud.

The number of connected M2M devices will grow to somewhere between 25 million and 50 million by 2020. From a very low level the market will double again in 2012 and this will most likely also be the case in 2013.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/qtjjgc/australia_smart