FCC Announces Members of Precision Agriculture Connectivity Task Force

The Precision Agriculture Connectivity Task Force has been Re-Chartered for a Second Term, and its Industry Members have been announced. The first meeting of the re-chartered Task Force has been scheduled for January 13, 2022, at 10 am, and The Task Force will continue to support the FCC’s commitment of substantial funding for precision agriculture as part of FCC 5G Fund to support next generation wireless services.

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What to Know

  • The Precision Agriculture Connectivity Task Force has been Re-Chartered for a Second Term, and its Industry Members have been announced
  • The first meeting of the re-chartered Task Force has been scheduled for January 13, 2022, at 10 am
  • The Task Force will continue to support the FCC’s commitment of substantial funding for precision agriculture as part of FCC 5G Fund to support next generation wireless services

Task Force Members Announced and First Meeting Scheduled

The purpose of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) Precision Agriculture Connectivity Task Force (“Task Force”) is to provide advice and recommendations to the FCC on accelerating the deployment of broadband Internet access service on unserved agricultural land to promote precision agriculture.

The FCC has now appointed the members of the re-chartered Task Force, and the industry/governmental members include representatives from the following:

  • Land O’Lakes
  • Fifth Estate Growers LLC
  • Paige Wireless
  • Irrigation Association
  • Topcon Agriculture
  • Knodle Ltd. Farms
  • Midwest Energy & Communications
  • John Deere
  • Hughes Network Systems, LLC
  • Iron Horse Vineyards
  • Nex-Tech
  • South Dakota State University
  • Deaf Smith County, TX
  • Florida State Senate
  • Montana State University College of Agriculture & Montana Agricultural
  • Experiment Station
  • Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
  • United States Department of Agriculture

The re-chartered Task Force will hold its first meeting on Thursday, January 13, 2022, beginning at 10:00 am EST.

The FCC states that the primary agenda of the Task Force’s first meeting will be to:

“introduce members of the Task Force, describe the focus of each working group, review the policies relevant to the Task Force’s duties, and begin discussing strategies to advance broadband deployment on agricultural land and promote precision agriculture.”

The meeting will be virtual open to the public on the Internet via live feed from the FCC’s web page here.

Task Force Meeting is in Support of the FCC’s Commitment of At Least $1 Billion to be Made Available for Precision Agriculture

As part of the efforts to support “precision agriculture” technologies and issues, the agency has committed at least $1 billion to specifically target the deployment of technologically innovative 5G networks that facilitate precision agriculture. These funds will be available in “Phase II” of the FCC’s 5G Fund, the general goal of which is to bring 5G wireless broadband connectivity to rural America. The Public Notice announcing the adoption of the Order allocating these funds can be accessed here.

Contacts

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