With the growing adoption of IoT, connected devices and connected things have penetrated every aspect of people’s lives, from health and fitness, home automation, automotive and logistics, to smart cities and industrial IoT. It is only logical that IoT, connected devices, and automation would find its application in agriculture.
Farming has seen several technological transformations in the last decades, becoming more industrialized and technology oriented. By using various smart agriculture practices, farmers have gained better control over the process of raising livestock and growing crops, making it more predictable and improving its efficiency.
The growing consumer demand for agriculture products has contributed to the increased spread of smart farming technologies worldwide. In 2020 alone, the market share for IoT in agriculture reached $5.6 billion.
The agriculture supply chain is deeply interconnected and can be very complex. The need to integrate the network experience for the seamless sharing of data across that supply chain is important, but the challenge of that integration can be significant. The mobile operator can deploy and support these private wireless networks. They are also best positioned to integrate what could be isolated network instances into a comprehensive, global network ecosystem. The operator accomplishes this by applying the expertise and interconnectivity capabilities of itself and its partners—bringing new technologies like private LTE together with established capabilities, such as carrier-grade device management systems, roaming or network interconnection infrastructure, network analytics, policy control, and data clearing and financial settlement.
An example of how IoT supported by private LTE, analytics, and clearing and settlement can give rural mobile operators unique opportunities to broaden their services and develop new sources of revenue.
Mobile operators have an opportunity to support the agriculture industry as they continue to roll out smart agricultural leveraging IoT, wireless connectivity, and data.
Smart agriculture is the use of IoT sensors to collect environmental and machine data that can then be analyzed, so that farmers can make informed decisions, and improve the various processes involved in their business – from livestock, crop farming, and farm management. – Science Direct
As an example, agricultural businesses and those that support them are continually looking to transform their businesses to improve processes and increase revenues. From tracking equipment on a farm to measuring moisture in the soil and tracking product from farm to processing center and then to distribution centers locally and regionally, agricultural businesses can enhance their visibility throughout the life of their yields.
Rural mobile operators are in a unique position to help these agricultural businesses by helping them introduce private wireless networks to wirelessly connect a multitude of devices for a farm and co-op facility employees. In addition, operators can assist in supporting those devices as they travel from the private network to other regions and operator networks both domestically and even internationally. As more of devices roam in and out of an operator’s network, it is becoming imperative that operators have visibility into the devices and the signaling and data using their network, and then charge for that network usage accordingly. Download our eBook “Mobile Operators Driving Revenue from Rural IoT…Use Case – Agriculture” to get a more detailed understanding of how mobile operators can position themselves to take advantage of opportunities presented by industries needing to connect their IoT devices.
Mike Rosenbaum joined Syniverse in 2011 and has more than 15 years of experience in working in marketing communication and product management roles in the telecom industry. As Product Marketing Manager, Mike is responsible for leading the communication strategy and content development for Syniverse’s portfolio of connectivity solutions, including services for IPX, IoT, RCS, and 5G and 4G. Prior to joining Syniverse, Mike held various marketing roles with a number of leading technology companies, including OKI Network Technologies, Ubiquity Software and Aicent. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from California State University at Chico.
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