FCC Renews Task Force for Reviewing the Connectivity and Technology Needs of Precision Agriculture in the United States

The Federal Communications Commission renewed the charter of the Task Force for Reviewing the Connectivity and Technology Needs of Precision Agriculture in the United States (the Task Force) for a period expiring on January 1, 2025. The purpose of the Task Force is to:

• identify and measure current gaps in the availability of broadband internet access service on agricultural land;
• develop policy recommendations to promote the rapid, expanded deployment of broadband internet access service on unserved agricultural land, with a goal of achieving reliable capabilities on 95 percent of agricultural land in the United States by 2025;
• promote effective policy and regulatory solutions that encourage the adoption of broadband internet access service on farms and ranches and promote precision agriculture;
• recommend specific new rules or amendments to existing rules that the FCC should issue to achieve the goals and purposes of the policy recommendations described in the second item in this list;
• recommend specific steps that the FCC should take to obtain reliable and standardized data measurements of the availability of broadband internet access service as may be necessary to target funding support, from future programs  dedicated to the deployment of broadband internet access service, to unserved agricultural land in need of broadband internet access service; and
• recommend specific steps that the FCC should consider to ensure that the expertise of the Secretary of Agriculture and available farm data are reflected in future programs dedicated to the infrastructure deployment of broadband internet access service and to direct available funding to unserved agricultural land where needed.