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Jul 25, 2013
An informal coalition of groups studying rural broadband issues met again today, with ASA staff participating. The meeting, hosted by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, focused on strategies for meeting the future needs of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications from key stakeholders. Staff from AT&T participated as well, following other meetings where representatives of telecommunications trade associations and companies shared their perspectives with the working group.
The working group has begun work on a white paper setting out the future needs of agricultural, construction, mining and other stakeholders with growing demand for M2M communications. By 2020, there are projected to be 12.5 billion M2M devices globally, up from 1.3 billion devices today. Recent studies see agriculture as one of the most promising applications.
Use of M2M technology has the potential to remotely monitor soil conditions and weather forecasting, in addition to the savings generated by reduced fertilizer and fuel costs.
The economic reality of providing broadband services to sparsely populated areas is an ongoing struggle for providers and users, and ASA will continue to educate growers and actively engage on these issues.
