NBN Co says regional connections will help agriculture industry
With NBN Co shifting its focus towards connecting rural and remote communities to the network, the company says it is primed to help the agriculture industry achieve ambitious growth targets.
While broadband may be a secondary consideration to most other farming needs, NBN Co says that connectivity infrastructure will help build capacity, lift productivity and enable optimisation of modern farm machinery.
NBN Co offers its NBN Sky Muster satellite broadband service around the country, as well as a similar business satellite service. The satellite connections are touted by NBN Co as providing access to their network to the most remote areas in Australia.
The agriculture industry has set for itself a target for $100 billion in production value by 2030, a figure decided by the National Farmers’ Federation. NBN Co says connectivity will play a key role in advancing the industry towards its goal.
By enabling internet connectivity in remote areas currently unserviced by broadband or telecommunications towers, NBN Co hopes to improve the ability for farmers to plan and monitor their resources with the added versatility of digitalisation.
Research from the Australian Farming Institute found that digital farming has the potential to add more than $20 billion to the value of the agriculture industry by 2030, with over $15 billion of this revenue enabled by the internet.
“Farmers should view the installation of on-farm telecommunications infrastructure to be as critical as a new shed, grain silo or farm machine, and for them to be seen as investments rather than costs,” a statement from NBN Co reads.
“By connecting the landscape, we are giving our farmers the same opportunity to be connected in their workplace as people in cities and towns.”
Further to its satellite services, testing in regional Victoria is currently underway to determine how NBN fixed wireless services can support voice-over-Wi-Fi capabilities in an aim to plug areas known as mobile blackspots.
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