Deere & Co. on Deployment of Starlink on Farm Machines, Early Market Uptake, and Thoughts on a D2D Service

Originally published by Space Intel Report on March 19, 2025. Read the original article here.

WASHINGTON — Deere & Co.’s January 2024 selection of SpaceX Starlink to deploy Starlink terminals on thousands of Deere farm machines in the United States and Brazil was groundbreaking in several ways.

It followed an in-depth, and public, assessment of dozens of alternatives, including GEO and LEO service providers, and ended up with perhaps the first Starlink deal that included a service-level agreement that guaranteed performance.

It also raised the profile of satellite connectivity in the agricultural, forestry and construction markets. Intelsat recently credited Deere for its pioneering role, which made it easier for Intelsat to conclude a similar contract with CHN, whose brands include Case IH, New Holland and Steyr.

A year after its contract, Deere officials say the rollout with Starlink is on schedule and delivering on its early promise. In a Feb. 13 investor call, Deere Chief Executive John C. May said market reaction in Brazil has been above expectations, with 1,200 orders for the JDLink Boost product, which includes the Starlink terminal, in the first few weeks it was available.

May said some 500 units were sold on the first day. “It’s been very, very encouraging,” May said.

This is just the start. Deere plans to introduce JDLink Boost in other market where large farms are often unable to secure good cellular connections, according to Mike Kool, senior product manager for Deere’s connected fleet.

In a March 12 interview here at the Satellite 2025 conference, organized by Access Intelligence, Kool said the company is also assessing a D2D play and that Starlink is its likely provider.

Talk about the market uptake in Brazil for your JDLink Boost Starlink units.

I can’t go into precise numbers, but the orders have exceeded our expectations. It’s in the thousands, not the hundreds, that have landed at our dealers. Some 70% of Brazil is outside reliable cell coverage, and they have large farms that need ubiquitous connectivity. Our progression has been quick.

At what point does pre-installed kit outpace the aftermarket solution where JDLink Boost is installed on farm machines already in use? Isn’t it preferable for everyone to have it factory-installed?

The first kits were after market. We’ll need to figure out what the after market volume looks like and then, as we grow the installed base, we can get an idea of how many are out there.

There are different ways of integrating it. One example: We have the Starlink standard terminal today, about the size of a pizza box. They have already opened up the Mini and they’ll probably go to a smaller form factor over time and then you have the D2D and direct to cell capability.

We are looking not only at our solutions today but plotting the roadmap and portfolio to see what the next thing from Starlink looks like from a hardware perspective and then how do we drive the costs down for services over time to increase adoption.

What does the standard service contract look like?

It’s $1,000 for the hardware and it comes with a three-year license for the customer, an unlimited license to connect their machines. And then it’s a yearly renewal after that. They’re all buying, not leasing the equipment. It includes the terminal, the router, the power supply, the mounting equipment, the bolts. And with that comes a three-year service license at no additional cost.

 Unlimited bandwidth?

Yes.

Assuming the positive market adoption continues, where do you go next, both in equipment types and in geographic markets?

 Today it’s a Large Ag solution. Who’s to say we won’t extend it into our construction and forestry businesses in the future? We are keeping a keen eye on what that looks like. One barrier to entry is the cost of the hardware and the cost of the service. Over time we hope the data costs will go down so we can get it into more machines out there.

You mentioned direct-to-device (D2D), which uses a direct satellite link to an unmodified cell phone. Will you canvass the market before deciding on a provider or are you more likely to stay with Starlink?

I would say we are fully committed to the partnership with Starlink. If we have the ability to connect with them in the future with direct to cell, D2D, I think we need to be willing to adhere to our partnerships. But as technologies evolve we will continue to evolve with our partner. It’s a wait and see, but we’re not going away from Startlink and we’re not going away from our MNO [mobile network operator] partners.

The limitation now is IoT speeds. How do we evolve to IoT beyond SMS or simple voice calls? Can we drive the cost down to provide more value to more customers? The Starlink team has been very good to work with as we talk through this and work out a strategy together.

For the current service, it’s the total bandwidth use from the machine that is under contract?

Yes, it’s a sole connection with that machine. There might be a way in the future to have a separate WiFi pipe to allow the customer to connect their phone but we have to be smart about how and where we offer that. For example, if you offer that in Brazil you may have to register as an ISP, which has regulatory and tax implications.

We have legal and regulatory teams looking at how we do this and how we stay within the letter of the law. So it’s additional complications. It’s not something we are unwilling to tackle, but it has to be adhering to the law in how we bring it to the market.

I assume you have ways to prevent customers from using the connection as a home internet service?

I won’t go into technical details but we have protections. You can’t just pop off your terminal and then go plug it in and expect to work.

Any maintenance or installation issues so far?

ANo. We went through the rigors of testing it. We had 100s of machines in the field and close to 20,000 hours of tests on the terminals and the kit, and saw good results. Like any John Deere service we have parts numbers and service parts that customers can purchase.

 I know it’s early days but are you finding more disparities than you had predicted in terms of the type of use or volume of bandwidth?

It’s going pretty much according to plan. Users have to opt in and sign the JDLink service agreement and use policy. We can monitor data uses across the machines and since Deere’s paying the bill in most instances, we we need to be smart about what data consumption looks like and then take that back if we need to renegotiate contracts.

So aggregate data consumption has been within the expected range.

Yes. We don’t see any challenges at this point, but obviously we’ve been in the market for just two months and this will continue to grow.

While you were among the first to negotiate an SLA with Starlink, the service has begun offering SLAs to other big verticals, including maritime.

SLAs are not new to Deere. We have SLAs in other parts of the business. One of the good things for us is seeing the total availability of the Starlink network.

The bandwidth and availability is there for our customers when and where they need it. Both the throughput and latency are good, with enough headwind to grow.

Originally published by Space Intel Report on March 19, 2025. Read the original article here.