Deere & Company Noti

Ex PARTE PRESENTATION NOTIFICATION LETTER submitted by 801 17th Street, NW

Deere & Company Notice of Ex Parte Meetings

2019-03-08

This document pretains to SAT-AMD-20180531-00045 for Amended Filing on a Satellite Space Stations filing.

IBFS_SATAMD2018053100045_1635201

Morgan Lewis

Catherine Wang
Partner
+1.202.373.6037
catherine.wang@morganlewis.com

March 8, 2019

Via ECFS

Marlene H. Dortch, Secretary
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20554

Re:      Deere & Company
         Notice of Ex Parte Meetings
         WC Docket No. 10-90, WT Docket No. 10-208; WC Docket No. 11-10; IB
         Docket No. 11-109; IB Docket No. 17-16; File No. SAT-AMD-20180531-00044;
         File No. SAT-AMD-20180531-00045

Dear Ms. Dortch,

On March 6, 2019, representatives of Deere & Company (“Deere”), Mark N. Lewellen,
Manager of Spectrum Advocacy in Washington, DC and John W. Rauber, Jr., Director,
Washington Affairs along with the undersigned as outside counsel for Deere, met with
Rachael Bender, Legal Advisor to Chairman Pai, Evan Swarztrauber, Policy Advisor to
Commissioner Carr, and Randy Clarke, Legal Advisor to Commissioner Starks. Mr.
Lewellen and I also met with Umair Javed, Legal Advisor to Commissioner Rosenworcel
and Erin McGrath, Legal Advisor to Commissioner O’Reilly.

During these meetings we discussed Deere’s support for Commission policies and rules
that encourage the deployment of mobile and wireline broadband services and facilities
that cover underserved rural areas of agricultural operations including cropland. Today’s
high precision agriculture and smart farm technologies require broadband connectivity.
Although precision agriculture uses multiple wireless and satellite technologies for various
purposes, terrestrial cellular service (commercial mobile radio service) is critical for
mobile services in the field as well as at the farmhouse.

We discussed how the dramatic and continuing advancement of American production
agriculture requires that we expand how we think about rural connectivity. Today’s
modern farm machinery incorporates 4G modems that rely on cellphone coverage for
wireless broadband connections in the field. With mobile broadband, that farm equipment



                                               Morgan, Lewis & Bockius        LLP

                                               1111 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
                                               Washington, DC 20004                     +1.202.739.3000
                                               United States                        0   +1.202.739.3001


Marlene H. Dortch, Secretary
March 8, 2019
Page 2

can rapidly and seamlessly transfer data for use in real time crop analysis and operate
together in close coordination in ways that greatly enhance crop yield, reduce costs and
delays, and minimize inputs of seed, water, fertilizers, and pesticides. The greater crop
yields, cost efficiencies, and environmental sustainability made possible by high precision
agriculture and smart farming techniques greatly benefit rural economies and the American
public generally.

We discussed the specific need for improved data collection and mapping techniques that
accurately identify gaps in mobile broadband coverage in areas of agricultural operations.
To that end, we discussed potential mapping tools that could be developed using
Commission cell tower data in combination with publicly available U.S. Department of
Agriculture (“USDA”) nationwide crop information. We discussed state examples using
these tools as shown on the attached slide deck. Commission rules and support programs
should recognize and address the growing unmet need for mobile broadband coverage not
only in residential population centers, but also in areas of agricultural operations.

We also discussed the important role that GPS plays in high precision agriculture and the
benefits to high precision GPS made possible through continuing access to Galileo
satellites.

Please address any questions regarding this notice to the undersigned.


                                             Very truly yours,
                                                    /s/
                                             Catherine Wang


                                             Counsel for Deere & Company

Attachment

cc:    Rachael Bender
       Evan Swarztrauber
       Randy Clarke
       Umair Javed
       Erin McGrath


Challenge of Extending Mobile
Broadband Over Cropland:           af   JOHN DEERE
A Four State Geospatial Analysis


    State Level Map Example: Corn and Soybean in
    Illinois
                                     ❑ Corn
                                     ■ Soybeans




2                                                 JOHN DEERE


    Cell Towers in Illinois
                              Process to Generate Results
                              •   ESRI ArcMap for geoprocessing
                              •   Clipping, X-Y coordinate plotting
                              •   5 mile buffer around Cell tower
                              •   Visible open spaces expose gaps
                              •   Uncovered crop area ~9M acres
                              •   Additional Towers needed: ~185
3


    Cell Towers in Iowa

                          Process to Generate Results

                          •   ESRI ArcMap for geoprocessing

                          •   Clipping, X-Y coordinate plotting

                          •   5 mile buffer around Cell tower

                          •   Visible open spaces expose gaps

                          •   Uncovered crop area ~12.9M acres

                          •   Additional Towers needed: ~257




4
                                                  0   JOHN DEERE


    Cell Towers in Kansas




                                               Ccrn
                                               DbI Crap WinWht/Corn
                                               Dbl Crap WinWht/Catton
                                               DbI Crap WinWht/Sarghurr

      •   Uncovered crop area ~8.56M acres     DbI Crop WinWht/Saybean
                                             • Soybeans
                                             MSpring YTheat

          Additional Towers needed: ~170
                                               Winter V.Iheat
      •



5                                                                     JOHN DEERE


    Cell Towers in Nebraska




                                                  Corn
                                                  Dial Crop WI nWht/Corn
                                              •   bbl Crop WI nWht/C otton
                                              •   bbl Crop WI nWht/Sorg hurr
      •   Uncovered crop area ~12.03M acres   •   bbl Crop WI nWht/Soybea n
                                              •   Soybeans
                                                  Spring Wheat
      •   Additional Towers needed: ~239      •   Winter Wheat




6
                                                         e   l JOHN DEERE


    Analytic Results
    (Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas)



         L State


            IL
            IA
                         Total acreage of
                   Corn and Soybean in Millions
                               21.19
                                 23
                                                  Uncovered Acres Towers Needed Existing Towers
                                                    in Millions
                                                       9.31
                                                       12.92
                                                                       185
                                                                       257
                                                                                      2047
                                                                                      833
                                                                                                  Percentage
                                                                                                   Increase

                                                                                                     8.3%
                                                                                                    23.6%
                          Total acreage of
                   Corn, Soybean and Wheat in
                              Millions
            NE                 16.26                  12.03            239          439          35.3%
            KA                 17.06                  8.56             170          1306         11.5%
                                                                         2017 Cropland Acreage as per USDA


    The column “Towers Needed” was calculated by simple math
         • We divided the “Uncovered Acres” (Colum 3) by the area of a 5 mile cell
         • It is a guesstimate, but it should give lower bound as to the
             overall magnitude of the problem and the solution
         • It does show the answer is in the lower hundreds, and not in the thousands

        The last two columns show number of “Existing Towers” and “Percentage Increase”
        • The large number in existing towers is due to urban areas where major factors
           like population density play a major role
        • This skews the coverage percentage calculations downward and does not
           accurately reflect the true “Percentage Increase” of rural coverage


7                                                                                                        JOHN DEERE





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