Deere & Company is not only working to improve productivity on the farm but also in the factory by bringing connectivity to rural America.

Deere’s manufacturing facilities are very complex environments that rely heavily on internet connectivity and access. Advanced internet connectivity enables Deere & Company to fully embrace the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and other breakthrough technologies and revolutionize factory productivity.

In the rural communities where Deere’s facilities are located, connectivity, or lack of, can be a problem.

There are extensive broadband coverage gaps in rural America, with more than 21.3 million people without access to broadband, according to the Federal Communications Commission’s 2020 Broadband Deployment Report.

Without internet connectivity, rural enterprises cannot compete with urban-based companies, health care services are unable to reach entire communities, and virtual education options are limited.

According to reports, the FCC is aiming to deploy 5G cellular networks to cover 90 percent of the U.S. population in the next four years, but the remaining 10 percent will take over a decade. (Forrester Research, 2019). The FCC is partnering with private companies to expand the reach of 5G to rural areas with the first significant mid-band auction in recent years. For the first time, this spectrum will be auctioned at a county level.

Bringing Better Connection Technology to Factories

Deere & Company successfully obtained 5G licenses in five counties in Iowa and Illinois as part of the FCC auction. Community building, education, entrepreneurship, and accessible health care are made possible and available by rural 5G expansion.

Obtaining these licenses will enable Deere to accelerate the availability of 5G in its largest manufacturing facilities in North America, including Harvester Works, Des Moines Works, Waterloo Works, and John Deere Intelligent Solutions Group, and their surrounding communities.

These factories have miles of embedded Ethernet cables connected to Wi-Fi drop points in their ceilings; all of these hard-wired elements act as barriers. As a result, Deere will be able to accelerate the availability of 5G in these facilities and remove many of those barriers at a quicker pace.

5G enables private LTE networks and will allow Deere to design a more flexible, nimble, and connected facility, creating opportunities for further advancement and greater efficiency that will transform the manufacturing process.

Private 5G LTE also creates many opportunities to expand factory capabilities for leveraging edge computing, analytics, and autonomous devices. It empowers a larger set of smart applications, like real-time location systems, asset tracking, inventory management, wearables, building automation, and robotics for operational cost savings.

These technologies will drive agricultural productivity growth in the coming decades, enabling producers to adapt to economic and environmental challenges.