Deere Gets FCC White Spaces Waiver on Agricultural Devices
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology Thursday approved a waiver request by Deere allowing the company to install TV white space devices manufactured by Koos on agricultural equipment. Deere requested the waiver last summer (see 1508210035). “Our action here…
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will permit [Koos] to obtain an equipment certification grant for a fixed white space device that will be installed in Deere agricultural machinery, such as tractors, self-propelled harvesting machines, sprayers, etc., to provide a variety of agricultural applications,” the order said. “We find that granting these waivers is in the public interest because they will provide for broadband machine-to-machine (M2M) data communications aimed at increasing crop yields and reducing food production costs, all without causing harmful interference or materially adding to spectrum congestion for other authorized users of this frequency band.” OET said fixed white spaces devices are subject to strict controls: "Such devices must: 1) initially register with a white space database to enter their coordinates and antenna height above ground level, 2) obtain a channel list before operating, and 3) re-check the database at least once daily. If moved to another location or if its stored coordinates are altered, a fixed device must also re-register its new coordinates and antenna height."