Vivo and Partner Set Up Connected Farm in Brazil

Telefonica Brasil’s corporate unit Vivo Empresas and Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (Esalq-USP) have presented a project called Fazenda Conectada (Connected Farm) in the city of Piracicaba in São Paulo State, according to a report. In an area of 100,000 square meters, Vivo is providing 100 percent connectivity for an irrigation system via a 4G/LTE network. The system also involves an IoT-enabled meteorological station, made by Ativa Solutions, which collects essential data, such as live atmospheric indicators.

We have written on a number of occasions recently about the benefits to operators and their customers of partnering with technology developers and other partners to offer innovative and tailored IoT services. While IoT is often spoken of in relation to heavy industry on the one hand and to high-end domestic devices on the other, agribusiness is a very vital and important area in which it can be of great use.

In this instance in Brazil, we have a major operator’s business unit offering an IoT solution for farmers, who are most likely in the SMB category, in a part of the country where farming is a major aspect of the economy. The main partner is an agricultural school, so its contribution would appear to be primarily expertise. By means of the resulting design, the high-speed network is being used to enable automated “smart” irrigation. The other entity, Ativa, is a true technology partner; it has created an IoT weather station that captures data in real time. Presumably this data is constantly fed back to the irrigation system, which makes changes accordingly.

This solution appears to be an excellent offering, well tailored to the needs of its target customer base and technologically innovative in a way that should not only bring revenue to the operator but also cultivate its public image as concerned about the needs of an industry that is vital to the needs of all Brazilians.

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