A deal announced today between SpaceX and John Deere illustrates another opportunity for SpaceX’s Starlink low-earth orbit satellite service – providing connectivity to support precision agriculture. John Deere is using the name SATCOM for the Starlink service, which is expected to be available in the second half of 2024.
John Deere needs internet connectivity to support communications between the John Deere Operations Center, which is the cloud that supports the company’s precision ag offerings, and the company’s autonomous tractors and other precision agriculture applications that the company offers.
As John Deere notes in its announcement about the service, not every farmer has good cellular connectivity. Accordingly, the SpaceX Starlink service provides connectivity between the farmer and the John Deere cloud.
John Deere dealers will install a ruggedized Starlink terminal, along with a 4G LTE JDLink modem, on farm equipment requiring connectivity to the cloud.
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