Deere Stresses Need for Broadband Connectivity on Cropland

Deere & Company met separately with advisors to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Pai and Commissioners Carr, Starks, Rosenworcel, and O'Rielly on March 6, 2019 to discuss the deployment of mobile and wireline broadband services and facilities that cover underserved rural areas of agricultural operations, including cropland. Deere said today’s high precision agriculture and smart farm technologies require broadband connectivity. They discussed the need for improved data collection and mapping techniques that accurately identify gaps in mobile broadband coverage in areas of agricultural operations, and discussed potential mapping tools that could be developed using FCC cell tower data in combination with publicly available Department of Agriculture nationwide crop information.