They launched the first urban connectivity cluster in rural areas

As part of the Expoagro 2024 edition of YPF Agro, Telecom shared the progress of the connectivity infrastructure implementation plan in the core area, with a cluster that will cover half a million hectares, in the districts of Pergamino and Rojas, north of the province of Buenos Aires.

This week the first tower of 7 new mobile sites with 4G technology and IoT networks which will be installed to strengthen connectivity in rural agricultural production areas by involving companies in the value chain and the aforementioned Municipalities, in a collaborative manner.

The National Capital of Agri-Food was the right setting to announce this innovation in a press conference attended by Peter VigneauHead of Cabinet of the National Bioeconomy Secretariat; Nicola Ingranaggidirector of Gear and president of the Argentine Seed Growers Association; Michael Dover, producer at Pergamino and director of the CREA Advisory Council. They participated on behalf of the telecommunications company Hernan VerdaguerDirector of Regulatory Affairs at Telecom Argentina, Fernando Freytes, Head of IoT at Telecom Argentina, e Juan Pablo Cosentino, Head of IoT Business Development at Telecom Argentina. The moderator was Ettore Huergojournalistic director of Grupo Clarín’s Rural Hub.

“The project seeks reduce the historical coverage gap bring connectivity to rural areas, to promote the technological development of Argentine agriculture and the activities that derive from it,” summarized Cosentino.

“It’s about covering that surface (500 thousand hectares) with 4G service and connectivity for the Internet of Things, that is, connectivity that allows us to reach buried sensors, even machinery or even a house,” he explained. And she observed: “It’s about bringing urban connectivity to rural areas.”

Huergo emphasized that they aim for a “more connected field” in the framework of an AgTech ecosystem that has accelerated its growth in recent years and, as the Expo motto states, “this is” a strong commitment to local economic development.

The implementation is supported by the identification of key rural clusters (zones) where the impact of connectivity can accelerate growth, development and growth digital inclusion of it through the connectivity-enabled solutions. The work is carried out in collaboration with interested companies in the region and municipalities, hence the name collaborative clusters.

These developments include the deployment of networks with Low Power technology, exclusively for use in IoT solutions, which allows customers to access the best connectivity experience and Narrow Band IoT (NB-IoT) technology which serves for stationary applications with reduced bandwidth requirements, such as meteorological instruments, meters of soil temperature and humidity levels and other environmental applications.

LTE-M technology is used for applications with high connectivity and/or mobility requirements, such as intelligent irrigation, environmental temperature control and ventilation in sheds or factories with animals; and monitoring of live animals. Activities in rural environments require the satisfaction of needs and the use of specific technologies for their operation.

In this way Telecom proposes and makes available, together with its partners, a response path to disconnected rurality, taking into account the social impact (rootedness, security, health, education), environmental impact (footprint and control of the use of resources) as well as obviously the importance for the production operation that the enabling technologies mounted on it offer to streamline online procedures, monitor agricultural machinery, guarantee product quality, streamline processes in general and allow digital traceability or digital footprint of our activities, among other benefits.

Cosentino stated that it is “the starting point for other regions. We are talking about regions and also industries, such as wine, peanuts or chicken. We are satisfied and waiting. The horizon is to reach around 5 million hectares.

Verdaguer indicated that we are “working to make this happen in all the provinces that require it, or regions or industries, that can accompany it.” spirit of collaboration essential to make this development sustainable.

THE companies that have already joined AGCO, Allaria Agro, Bayer, Case IH, Chacra Servicios, CNH, Corteva, Crucianelli, Banco Galicia, Gear, New Holland, Strix, Plantium, Rizobacter, RUS, among others, participate in the collaboration project.

Verdaguer underlined this “The collaboration is not just between private companies, with strategic partners who make this project possible.”but public commitment is also fundamental, in this case with the common, to facilitate the creation of the necessary infrastructures”.

Agreeing on the benefits that this technological innovation will bring, Vigneau, Gear and Dover agreed that it is “a question of justice, of common good”and they also celebrated the realization of a desire that they have been talking about for a few years in their journeys as leaders in the production sector.

Cosentino said it in the same sense “The human is not left aside. It is the main thing, because it is the awareness that arises among people that then affects the incorporation of technology and not vice versa. It’s not that technology is coming to solve the root problem. Embeddedness is resolved when people access that urbanity remotely,” he comments.

He mayor of Pergamino, Javier Martinez, stressed the importance of seeing “the impact this can have. Pergamino has approximately 300 thousand hectares, 12 municipalities and 26 rural schools. In the city we will be able to monitor the cameras, which we could not do in rural cities due to lack of connectivity, nor on some rural roads. And with this Plan we will be able to do it. Furthermore, the digitalisation of patients can be implemented in the 12 primary healthcare centers in the cities. Certainly After this we will have a better scroll“.

While, Romano Bouvier, The mayor of Rojas praised the commitment of those who promoted this initiative when it seemed difficult to implement. Clearly, This public-private joint is the way do transcendent things.”