There’s no shortage of cows and corn in the country, but cellular is just the opposite. In fact, 16% of land in the U.S. and 70% of Canada have no cellular service because their population density is too low to recoup the investment in base stations, backhaul, and other infrastructure.
A UScellular white paper quantifies the business challenge for fixed wireless access (FWA), which applies to mobile and smart agriculture applications, too: “To justify unsubsidized investment, we must be able to reach several hundred homes and businesses per tower (note: our economics require over 150 subscribers at $65 per month to equip an existing tower with the necessary equipment; or approximately 500 subscribers to build a new tower, and we can’t assume that everyone will adopt the service). The cost of building and maintaining a tower in rural America can be nearly twice as expensive as building a tower in an urban area, and the density of customers in these areas is far less than in suburban and urban areas, thereby putting pressure on the revenue generation needed to drive a positive return on investment.”
Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTNs) are filling that gap in pastures, fields, and other rural areas. These low Earth (LEO), medium Earth (MEO), and geostationary orbiting (GEO) satellite constellations provide service directly to customers and via partnerships with mobile operators. An example is Starlink, which powers T-Mobile’s T-Satellite service.
Standards work is facilitating NTN-cellular interoperability, starting with 3GPP Release 17. A more recent example is 3GPP’s introduction of a Work Item for Release 19 to simplify the use of cellular protocols for managing satellite communication.
How to Implement NTN for Smart Agriculture Applications
As Apple and Android added NTN support to their phones and watches, much of the spotlight has been on consumer-focused applications. But enterprise and industrial adoption also is growing as module vendors such as Murata launch NTN products for IoT applications.
NTNs are a good fit for a wide variety of smart agriculture IoT applications, such as virtual fences for grazing livestock, sensors for reporting soil temperature and moisture, autonomous tractors, and irrigation controllers. NTNs also can be combined with GNSS to enable additional use cases. An example is using NTN to ping agriculture equipment and livestock collars in remote areas to get their precise locations using GNSS, eliminating the time and expense of driving around to look for them.
State and federal rural broadband programs also help make the business case for using NTN for smart agriculture. “These programs often include subsidies for satellite connectivity and digital farming equipment, reducing the financial barriers for co-ops and smallholder farmers,” says Growth Market Reports. “Furthermore, the increasing focus on food security, supply chain transparency, and sustainable resource management is driving the adoption of satellite-enabled solutions across the agricultural value chain.”
The right antenna is critical for maximizing NTN reliability and performance. The Taoglas NLA.01 is a ceramic loop antenna designed for NTN applications that use compact devices, such as livestock monitor collars. Unlike patch antennas, the loop design provides an omni-directional radiation pattern, which is critical for applications where the device’s orientation to the sky constantly changes.
Finding the right antenna for your NTN application means balancing performance, durability, and integration requirements — and that’s where Taoglas excels. Our antennas are engineered to rigorous quality standards and built to endure the demanding conditions NTN deployments often face, from harsh chemicals and constant vibration to prolonged outdoor exposure.
Explore our full range of NTN antenna solutions here or contact us directly to discuss your specific requirements.
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