The Internet of Food & Farm 2020 project is important. So much so that the European Commission has contributed EUR 30 million.
Its goals are to:
- explore the potential for IoT-technologies in the food and farming industry;
- make precision farming a reality;
- build a lasting innovation ecosystem that fosters the uptake of IoT technologies and ultimately to
- create a more sustainable food value chain.
Key stakeholders along this chain are involved in IoF2020 together with technology service providers, software companies and academic research institutions. They will test and demonstrate IoT technologies in operational farm environments to include arable, dairy, fruits, meat and vegetables. The ultimate aim is for these IoT solutions to reach commercial stage. You can read more about the project here: https://www.iof2020.eu/
Telecom26; our future role in the food supply chain
The majority of our IoT deployments to date are in the healthcare and transportation sectors. You can read more about what we’re up to in these blog posts: Improving Connectivity for healthcare workers in remote areas and “Ensuring reliable, secure near-port, onshore and offshore connectivity”.
However, we have seen a variety of IoT farming projects being rolled out in countries where we are active and have been considering how we can contribute towards these. As well as connectivity, the key factors are the use of sensors in four different areas:
- weather monitoring
- soil moisture and temperature probes,
- water meters for lakes, rivers and boreholes, and
- measuring irrigation water acidity and salinity.
NB Sensors are so cheap these days they are practically throwaway. We’re thinking that if our global SIM cards are integrated into the sensors deployed in agricultural scenarios, then these would provide connectivity no matter where and how the sensor is deployed.
Food for thought for our innovative R&D team who love a new challenge!
Telecom26: our current role in the food supply chain - ships and trucks
We’re currently focused on smart transportation and improving communications across the global transportation industry, so quite literally getting the food from farm to your plate via the truck, vessel, truck route.
A book that we will discuss in future blogs, but which is a must-read for the Telecom26 team, is “Ninety Percent of Everything - Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your Plate” which centres around the five weeks that its author spent on a giant container ship travelling from the English port of Felixstowe to Singapore.
As the title suggests, the global shipping industry transports 90% of raw and finished goods used in the world from one place to another.
However, tracking ships, trucks - and the containers on-board - is still a problem. Owners want and need constant monitoring of their goods. Most container sensors have an integrated cellular modem, however these are currently under-utilized due to SIM logistics and profiles for coverage.
Our Multi-IMSI global SIM cards and smart routers enable the sensors located inside a container to access the best network available at a particular time in any area.
Alongside that we also provide offshore cellular for crew and passengers through our roaming agreements with 1100 cellular networks from over 620 mobile operators in more than 220 countries. When coverage is visible, Telecom26 can connect to it and, when another signal is available, we can determine which is the better network to provide service. And, where coverage is needed but not available, Telecom26 can deploy a private network with VSAT backhaul.
By automatically switching between networks, our global SIMs provide the owners of containers with up-to-date information about the location of their precious cargo whether it is on land or sea. Knowledge that helps keep food on our plate, clothes on our back and products that we need and want in our homes and offices.
Telecom 26 - Innovation First
We know that innovation is critical to the evolution of most industries. IoT, smart transportation and precision farming are just a few of the areas where we are helping to develop new products, services and ideas that extend the boundaries of mobile services and enable applications to take off and flourish.
As a truly global mobile operator, we have a unique worldwide environment, in which new ideas are tested and evaluated, before being launched.
We offer a full range of connectivity options including 5G, LTE, WiFi, NB-IoT, private networks, 2G, 3G and 4G, as well as offshore connectivity capabilities.
So please Get in touch to find out how Telecom26 can help improve connectivity for your team, wherever they are in the world.
