John Deere equipment will soon have satellite internet service for its farmer/customers in the United States and Brazil. With a new strategic partnership with SpaceX, Deere hopes to solve the problem of connectivity in rural areas. Deere Senior Product Manager Mike Kool said 30 percent of U.S. cropland and 80 percent of Brazilian cropland have connectivity issues. The technology will be retrofitted into existing equipment. “The first goal here is to get this out broadly and we’re going to do that via aftermarket kits. In the future, we’re looking at what’s needed to have this come out of the factory.” A limited release is expected before the end of the year. “That’s still a very aggressive timeline in our view; we want to get this to the market as fast as we can, but we’re not going to sacrifice quality.” Entrepreneur Elon Musk owns SpaceX, which operates the Starlink internet network.
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