New Zealand farmers are replacing farm technology that still worked and paying for connectivity workarounds after the country's 3G network was switched off, a survey by Federated Farmers has found, reports Amanda Lim for AgNavigator. The 3G phase-out began in March.
Half of the farms surveyed now have mobile coverage across less than half of their property, and one in three farmers has lost signal in parts of the farm that 3G used to reach. One in seven farms had to replace equipment that relied on 3G, some spending thousands of dollars on gear that still worked.
Two in three farmers paid for workarounds such as satellite broadband, but only 15% considered satellite-to-mobile services an adequate substitute for a cell tower. Nearly two-thirds said they could not reliably call emergency services from most of the farm, and more than 40 had nowhere on their property where they could consistently reach the emergency number 111. One farmer said patchy coverage contributed to failing a WorkSafe audit because staff communication requirements could not be met.
"For farmers, subpar telecommunications is like trying to drive with half the cylinders misfiring," said Mark Hooper, the federation's telecommunications spokesperson. Farmers had been told that most areas covered by 3G would get 4G and 5G, he said, and "earlier talk from telcos that rural residents don't have to worry about the shutdown of 3G networks has proved hollow".
The survey ran from late August to early September. Of the 126 farms that reported coverage or reliability problems, only two had them resolved.
Federated Farmers is now in urgent talks with telecom providers. Hooper accepted that big investment in "old technology" such as new towers may be hard to justify with satellite calling on the way, but said the focus should be on fine-tuning existing infrastructure now: "At the very least, surely we can get more farmers hooked back up to the service standards they had with 3G."
Photo: Pseudopanax / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Source: AgNavigator
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