Attachment Exhibit A

This document pretains to SES-STA-20150701-00435 for Special Temporal Authority on a Satellite Earth Station filing.

IBFS_SESSTA2015070100435_1094486

                                                                              Deere & Company
                                           Receive-Only Mobile Earth Station Application for STA
                                                                                       Exhibit A

              EXHIBIT A – REASON FOR SPECIAL TEMPORARY AUTHORITY


        Deere & Company (“Deere”), pursuant to Section 25.120(b)(3) of the Commission’s
 Rules, 47 C.F.R. § 25.120(b)(3), hereby requests special temporary authority (“STA”) for a
 follow-on period of 60 days to operate receive-only, non-common carrier, mobile earth stations
 operating in the L-band to downlink transmissions from Inmarsat geostationary satellites at 15.5°
 and 54° west longitude and 178º east longitude (collectively “Inmarsat Satellites”).1 The
 Commission granted Deere STA for an initial 60-day period on November 7, 2014 (File No.
 SES-STA-20141030-00836), and extended STA for subsequent 60-day periods on January 7,
 2015 (SES-STA-20141217-00909) and May 27, 2015 (SES-STA-20150227-00104; SES-STA-
 20150501-00286). Deere requests the instant follow-on authority to begin no later than July 6,
 2015. Specifically, Deere requests STA for its existing network of mobile earth terminals
 (“METs”) operating under Call Sign E010011 to receive 2.5 kHz space-to-earth emissions
 (designator 2K50D1D) from the Inmarsat Satellites at the following center frequencies.2

 Table 1.0 - Amended StarFire L-band Frequencies

 Geostationary Arc Position                  Center Frequency (MHz/Space-to-Earth)
 54 west longitude                           1545.9775
 15.5 west longitude                         1545.9875
 178 east longitude                          1545.9875


         Since 2001, Deere has been enabling domestic agricultural equipment with its StarFire
 precision farming system. The StarFire system employs receive-only vehicle mounted mobile
 earth stations. These earth stations receive L-band space-to-earth emissions from Inmarsat
 geostationary satellites that provide correctional data. This data augments the navigational
 information the StarFire terminals receive simultaneously from Global Positioning System
 (“GPS”) satellites. This augmented system enables the operators of domestic farming equipment
 to pinpoint their location to within +/- 2.5 centimeters.3 This precise positioning capability
 developed originally to assist farmers in comparing the crop yields from various fields to
 determine, among other things, the amount of fertilizer and seed appropriate for a particular field
 and crop, has now found additional important uses to improve farming efficiency, including
 enabling farmers to manually record observations such as weed patches, crop appearance, and
 other field variables with remarkable precision. In addition, among other benefits, when coupled
 to the vehicle steering system through the Deere AutoTrack system it aids the operator to steer a

 1
       All involved Inmarsat spacecraft have been approved to serve the United States, and are
       reflected on the Commission ISAT list.
 2
       No changes have been made to the frequencies or technical parameters already approved in
       SES-STA-20141030-00836.
 3
       Navigational accuracy depends on several variables, including visibility to overhead
       satellites and other supplemental transmitters providing correctional data.

DB3/ 200318914.1


                                                                              Deere & Company
                                           Receive-Only Mobile Earth Station Application for STA
                                                                                       Exhibit A

 more precise path when making repeated passes over the same track, thus greatly reducing crop
 and soil damage.

        Follow-on STA is needed because Deere was recently notified by Inmarsat that StarFire
 L-band downlink signals in North America would transition to frequencies identified above in
 Table 1.0.4 Grant of STA will serve the public interest by ensuring continuity of service for
 thousands of existing Deere StarFire customers during the pendency of Deere’s concurrently
 filed permanent applications to modify Call Sign E010011 to receive the above-referenced
 frequencies.5 Pursuant to Section 25.120(b)(3) of the rules, Deere requests a 60-day STA
 without the need for prior public notice. As discussed above, grant of authority is requested on
 or before close of business on July 6, 2015 so that Deere can continue to provide service to
 customers without any loss of service.




 4
       Vizada, Inc. (“Vizada”) uplinks correctional data on Deere’s behalf from earth stations
       located in Santa Paula, California and Southbury, Connecticut. After the frequency
       transition, Vizada will continue to provide the same uplink services.
 5
       Application Submission ID: IB2014002165.

DB3/ 200318914.1



Document Created: 2015-07-01 17:37:23
Document Modified: 2015-07-01 17:37:23

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