Ag’s fate in telcos’ hands

With hundreds of rural companies investing in agricultural technology, farmers are at the forefront of opportunity.

Unfortunately though, a lack of mobile internet connection in the bush is hindering this technology’s potential. 

Last month, member for Parkes, Mark Coulton and assistant minister for science, Karen Andrews, visited Moree’s agronomy business B&W Rural, where they were shown new agricultural innovations and technology.

A key focus of the day was highlighting that currently, these technologies were working to a certain extent, but with better mobile internet connectivity in rural Australia, they could be improved dramatically.

Mr Coulton said the government had to find balance between rallying for people who don’t have a basic internet and supporting better mobile internet connection to allow more agricultural development.

The amount of data supplied through phone networks is growing at an exponential rate and Mr Coulton said it was telcos’ responsibility to ensure they were upgrading their services to handle that. “It’s a conversation I’ll be having with the telcos to make sure they're continually upgrading their services to take these advancements into account,” he said.

Telstra area general manager for northern region, Michael Marom, said it was always a challenge to keep up with demand, especially when data requirements were doubling every 12 to 15 months.

With a map on their website detailing where Telstra coverage would be provided across the state, some would argue the detail is inaccurate.

Mr Marom ensured their maps were accurate and people within coverage areas could be losing reception from things like “native vegetation” interfering with it.

With the NBN satellite expected to roll out soon, Mr Coulton said data capacity would be up and result in better internet connectivity in the paddock.