Construction equipment manufacturer John Deere has obtained 5G licenses for five counties in Iowa and Illinois to boost wireless connectivity in its manufacturing facilities in North America.
The licenses were obtained as part of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) auction for the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) 3.5 GHz spectrum. John Deere said rural counties often do not keep up with the latest technological breakthroughs even with large quantities of data needed for smart manufacturing, internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and other breakthrough technologies in these rural areas.
With the 5G licenses, John Deere will be able to provide 5G services to its facilities in the counties of Rock Island, Illinois; Scott County, Iowa; Dubuque, Iowa; Polk County, Iowa; and Black Hawk County, Iowa. The rollout is expected to take place in John Deere’s 2022 fiscal year.
“Implementing 5G in our manufacturing facilities allows John Deere to make significant progress in our Smart Industrial strategy by turning factories into smart and connected manufacturing facilities – a critical piece of the industrial IoT,” said Jahmy Hindman, CTO of John Deere.
In its manufacturing facilities, automation and connectivity is a necessity, John Deere said. With embedded Ethernet cables connecting Wi-Fi drop points in factory ceilings, the facilities are faced with limited flexibility for set and upgrades. 5G enabled by private networks allow these facilities to be more flexible, nimble and connected, allowing for further advancement and greater efficiency.
Private 5G networks also create expanded factory capabilities to leverage edge computing, analytics and autonomous devices to help with real-time location systems, asset tracking, inventory management, wearables, building automation and robotics.
Over the past few years, John Deere has been actively upping its technology content in its business including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to survey construction job sites around the world. The drones allow construction workers to capture topographic data in minutes. These fully autonomous drones fly a designated path and then land without any operator intervention. This data can then be shared with other workers or used to plan a path for construction.
