Telcos say 4G network will impress, but will farm gear be ready?

But uncertainty hangs over the impact of the network blackout on a wide range of farm equipment which will need hardware upgrades before the closure starts in earnest on July 1.

Use of telemetry technology to control equipment and collect data has become commonplace on the farm in the past decade.

Everything from tractors and headers to water level monitoring devices, soil moisture and temperature sensors, electric fences, livestock scales, security cameras, irrigation systems and crop sprayers has, until recently, relied on the 3G spectrum to transmit data between machines, or to a farm office or mobile phone.

"If you are waiting to find out whether you could have a problem, you've waited too long," said Optus' northern NSW territory manager, Chris Simon.

"You need to be talking to the equipment manufacturers now."

Telcos such as Optus, Telstra and Vodafone were in the dark about exactly what 3G-compatible equipment was still relying on their 3G networks.

"We've reached out to warn manufacturers and industry organisations, but we can't contact their customers - we don't know who those customers are," he said.

Farm machinery technology specialist, Jeremy Duniam, estimated only about half the owners of mechanised gear acquired in the past five to 10 years had approached their machinery dealer to check on, or upgrade, their tractor or harvester data monitoring kit.

Fleet operators and farm businesses spread over multiple holdings tended to be more alert of the 3G blackout risks to their equipment activity and were moving faster than others.

"There's been a flurry of activity since early this year, but I'd expect another big flurry after Telstra's 3G network shuts down on June 30 and catches people out," said Mr Duniam, who heads precision technology with CNH Industrial in Australia and New Zealand.

He said almost any machine over 112 kilowatts (150 horsepower) was now fitted with machine and field data monitoring equipment.

While Case IH and New Holland began transitioning to 4G compatible gear in 2021, farmers were less likely to think about upgrading older "embedded" 3G technologies with quite the same urgency as they might replace a mobile phone.

The value of data and use of telemetry gear to transmit real time information had evolved rapidly in the past decade to monitor everything from grain yields to paddock sowing progress and fuel efficiency, or diagnose "machine health".

"Dealers can start identifying troublesome issues remotely, rather than sending a technician on a two hour drive to the farm to find the problem," he said.

Upgrades to 4G generally required new hardware, not just a replacement SIM card.

Manufacturers were offering 4G modem replacement support initiatives, however farm telemetry technology options were expanding so quickly, producers may instead opt to adopt on-board satellite or farm-based Wi-Fi networks, including hybrid connectivity systems.

Regional Tech Hub general manager, Jen Medway, said while the 3G changeover was frustrating for many, particularly in black spot areas already struggling with poor network coverage, everybody must "take the bull by the horns and check out what you need to know, now".

She told a National Farmers Federation-Tech Hub webinar regional dwellers should be asking questions of telcos, and equipment manufacturers, "because one minute 3G will be here, and then it will be gone".

Addressing the same forum, Telstra's technology development and innovation executive, Channa Seneviratne, said fears about the 4G network's inability to maintain the existing connectivity footprint were unnecessary.

Telstra had just 112 3G towers in its 11,700 network left to convert to 4G and rigorous capacity testing by its own technicians and third party engineers was validating the effectiveness of each conversion.

The 4G network operated on a similar frequency to 3G, but used the spectrum more efficiently.

The current 3G coverage area would not shrink, but 4G technology would provide improved voice quality and faster download speeds.

In fact, the 4G signal was currently set below optimum strength until 3G closed, and would increase when more transmitter power was available after July 1.

"We've already seen the amount of data used by our customers increasing by three or four times after towers are upgraded to 4G," Mr Seneviratne said.

Based on testing so far, Telstra was even confident (although not promising) that problematic geographic areas receiving "fortuitous" 3G coverage while outside the official coverage footprint, would probably continue receiving an equivalent 4G signal.

Telstra was also promising a more powerful 5G signal from its regional towers than from most metropolitan transmitters after June 30.

Mr Seneviratne said the 3G shutdown enabled transmission towers to be repurposed with more 5G power so they not only accommodated faster, wider bandwidth to cope with bigger data download demands, but could send the signal much further.