Govt celebrates 250th 4G tower
The Government has welcomed the completion of the 250th 4G mobile tower, as part of its push for better rural connectivity.
The businesses are all currently accessing Telecom 4G over 700 MHz spectrum as part of a non-commercial trial the company started late last month, alongside partner Huawei Technologies.
Farmer Bruce Thomas says anything that saves time is great especially over calving time. "LICs pasture app saves us about 15 minutes each walk. With compliance becoming more important the opportunity to enter data once is pretty appealing. The new phones are heaps faster at uploading and downloading meaning we can do this on farm."
New Zealand is one of the first countries in the world to clear and reallocate a portion of the APT700 band plan (otherwise known as the Digital Dividend spectrum) to support mobile broadband usage. The 700 MHz band is the spectrum freed up by the switchover to digital television. While the Government's 700 MHz spectrum auction has not yet concluded, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has approved temporary use of the spectrum for trial purposes.
Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC), Anexa Animal Health and QCONZ all play key roles in supporting the success of fourth generation dairy farmer Bruce Thomas's farm. Together they help him to maintain optimum animal health, pasture conditions and farm dairy compliance and ultimately improve his farm's productivity, milk quality, animal welfare and environmental sustainability.
LIC's herd and farm management software - MINDA - is used by over 93% of New Zealand dairy farmers to maintain accurate records about their farm and their herd. Bruce Thomas is trialling three MINDA mobile applications which will allow him to both access and record essential farm and herd information.
LIC chief executive Wayne McNee says Telecom's new 4G network will support the smart technology solutions LIC is developing in response to the increasing information, compliance and reporting needs of New Zealand dairy farmers. "We have an extensive roadmap of software and app developments, the success of which will be dependent on rural access to fast data and broadband. The 700MHz spectrum will no doubt play a key role in delivering this access, so it's good to see Telecom moving quickly to get the network underway."
Anexa Animal Health, Head Vet, Andy Collier, is trialling Telecom's 4G over the 700MHz spectrum for both in-building broadband and mobile and says he anticipates the availability of on-farm wireless broadband will greatly assist the day to day work of vets.
