Cellular service in some rural areas is still sketchy at best.
That can pose difficulties for telematics-equipped farm equipment, and as agricultural equipment edges ever closer to full autonomy, a potential gap in real-time communications becomes a pretty major obstacle.
At the beginning of the year, John Deere announced the introduction of its satellite-based connectivity offering, JDLink Boost.
Initially it was launched only in Brazil, where cellular service is very limited, and in the United States, but as of June 9, the subscription service is available in Canada.
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“We launched this solution in Brazil and the U.S. in early January, but we recognized the need in other large economies where we need to get the solution out,” says Mike Kool, senior product manager for global connected fleet at John Deere.
“It’s been great to see. We’ve seen orders flowing through. Ultimately, we understand the challenges producers have in certain parts of Canada with poor connectivity.”
Signing up for the service has a US$1,000 cost, which basically covers the price of the terminal and all the necessary hardware to mount it in a machine. A three-year free subscription comes with the hardware.
Customers need to order JDLink Boost through their local dealer, who will need to set up a machine to work with the system. A single system can be moved between machines over the season.
Deere has partnered with Starlink’s satellite network to provide this service, but customers will not have any dealings with Starlink. All technical support will be handled by Deere.
JDLink Boost will ensure a machine maintains connectivity by using the satellite system and in some cases reverting to existing cellular networks. “If it loses the Starlink network, it will fall back to cell,” says Kool.
“It will use cell where it can, too. It’s an augmentation of both solutions, cellular and satellite, giving the customer the best possible connection.”
JDLink Boost also has a dual connectivity feature, which allows for data transfer to and from the machine but also provides a Wi-Fi connection, so a farmer can use it to access the internet with other devices.
“You have a connection that’s just for machine and agronomic data coming off the machine to and from the John Deere Operations Center,” Kool says.
“But they also have the ability to set up a guest Wi-Fi network. You connect your phone through the guest Wi-Fi in the JDLink Boost terminal.
“The dealer will be able to help them in order, installation and ensuring the solution is activated on whichever machine they’d like to put it on.”
