Spark NIWA and others launch major farm IoT trial
According to a post on the NZTech blog, Spark is partnering with NIWA, Farmlands, and Ballance Agri-Nutrients to launch an Internet of Things pilot for farmers, starting with about 40 farms in the Matamata-Piako region, with a further 20 farms to be added in the South Island.
The blog post said the pilot had begun in April 2017 and will deliver connectivity to farms through an on-farm Wi-Fi mesh network, connected to the Internet via Spark’s 4G network and a low power wide area network based on LoRaWAN technology.LoRaWAN is one of several new technologies designed for long range, low power low data rate IoT applications. KotahiNet is rolling out a LoRaWAN network in New Zealand and last September claimed coverage of more than half the population. Read more…
