Broadband optical and wireless access networks play a critical role in providing attractive services to achieve an Internet of Things (IoT) society. In this paper, we firstly overview the trends in the IoT services and the requirements of the optical access network technology for supporting IoT societies, and then discuss such perspectives to develop and support their worldwide expansion in near future. Finally, we introduce our recent activity on optical wireless access technologies and describe the expected advances of the laser technology to boost the research and the development of the next-generation optical access networks.