AgriStar Global Networks' chairman Cliff Ganschow told the US Federal Communications Commission last week that satellite broadband connectivity now enables the agricultural industry to fully utilize the Internet in the many ways originally anticipated, but which until now could not be realized because of extremely slow connectivity speeds over rural phone lines.

AgriStar's presentation was part of the FCC's "Making the Rural Connection" forum held on January 27, which explored innovative approaches for utilizing satellite broadband in agriculture, education, telemedicine, public safety and entertainment.  AgriStar was selected to discuss the opportunities now available for farmers and agribusiness to use its two-way satellite network to deliver high speed information and business services.

"The Internet has always had enormous potential in agriculture," Ganschow said "because of the industry's size, its complexity and fragmentation, and the steadily increasing need to move large amounts of information fast.  But rural geography, where deployment of cable and DSL lines is not economically feasible and phone lines are terribly slow, has kept a heavy lid on this potential until now."

Ganschow told the FCC audience that a lot of money was initially invested in Internet platforms by both traditional agribusinesses and new dot com companies with little, if any, thought given to connectivity speed.  "The only solution at that stage was to dumb down Internet sites in terms of graphics and applications, and then only limited amounts of data could be sent," he said.  "AgriStar's satellite broadband, with download speeds that are 20 to 30 times faster than rural dial-up, has opened up a vast new arena for effectively using the Internet."  AgriStar's satellite technology partner is Hughes Network Systems, the world's largest satellite services company.

Ganschow ended his presentation to the FCC staff and audience by listing a variety of ways AgriStar already is being successfully utilized throughout the country by farmers, agribusiness and rural non-farm users.  "In my 40 years in communications," he said, "there has never been anything close to the potential of the Internet combined with 2-way satellite broadband to impact how business is done in agriculture and to open new opportunities for rural America overall."