Rural connectivity in Latin America

CNH Industrial’s latest strategic agreement in Argentina with Telecom, takes their network coverage to close to 15 million hectares of farmland in rural Latin America.

Precision ag technology depends on robust internet connectivity. CNH has over 190 network provider partners in 144 countries that allow their customers to connect their products and benefit from full coverage wherever equipment is at work.

CNH’s latest strategic alliance with Telecom Argentina bolsters this network. Together with Telecom’s other partners, they are bringing 4G network connectivity and digital services to 500,000 hectares of countryside in the province of Buenos Aires.

“The Pergamino and Rojas areas are some of the most important for agricultural production in Argentina. But these places were lacking in adequate network coverage, which meant that our customers could not achieve the highest levels of productivity that our equipment and services offer. We had to do something about it,” said Rafael Miotto, President, Latin America at CNH. “By partnering with Telecom Argentina, we are ensuring that farmers always have access to the precision technologies that enhance their work. These include remote sensing and monitoring, which can help automate operator tasks, and smart irrigation that conserves water usage.”

This agreement furthers CNH’s strategy to deliver innovations everywhere, no matter how remote the location. In Brazil, CNH has a longstanding collaboration with the global network provider TIM, which offers the widest mobile coverage in the country. They are founding members of the ConectarAGRO association, which is helping to bring connectivity to more than 14 million hectares, benefiting over one million people across 13 states.

CNH and TIM also cooperate on the Fazenda Conectada (Connected Farm), a fully-functioning Farm and Ag Tech lab that monitors connected machines and their yields in Água Boa, Mato Grosso. Launched in 2021,the aim of this long-term project is to demonstrate how connectivity increases productivity in the field, even in a region with historically high yields.

Partnerships with providers such as TIM are working to bring cellular connectivity to more land. And in parts of fields where consistent cellular access is unavailable, CNH’s  “Bring Your Own Connectivity (BYOC)” approach makes network access possible by allowing farmers to connect to the Internet using any available network, hotspot, satellite, cell tower, or Wi-Fi. This gives farmers the freedom to efficiently get the job done without worrying about entering “dead zones” within their fields. Instead of dropping the signal, the machine sometimes switches between four or five different access points automatically for smooth, uninterrupted operation.