In short: Smart agriculture technology exists and is increasingly affordable — but it's useless without reliable connectivity. Most UK farms are stuck on sub-10Mbps connections that can't support IoT sensors, autonomous machinery, or drone operations. Private 5G removes the bottleneck.
Key Takeaways
- Connectivity is the bottleneck — the smart agriculture tools exist, but most farms don't have the internet to run them
- Our Llanthony Valley deployment proves it works — same terrain, same challenges, same solution
- Private 5G beats the alternatives — faster to deploy than fibre, more reliable than satellite, available where public 5G isn't
Smart Agriculture Has a Connectivity Problem
The agricultural technology market is booming. Precision sensors, autonomous tractors, livestock health monitors, drone mapping — the tools exist to transform how UK farms operate.
But there's a fundamental problem: most of these tools need internet access, and most UK farms don't have it.
Not in any meaningful sense, anyway. A 2Mbps ADSL line that drops during bad weather won't support a fleet of IoT sensors. A 4G signal that comes and goes depending on which field you're standing in won't run an autonomous tractor.
Before smart agriculture can happen, rural connectivity has to come first.
The Numbers
UK agriculture is overwhelmingly rural — obviously. But the connectivity reality of rural UK is stark:
- Ofcom's data consistently shows rural areas lagging far behind urban areas for broadband speeds and mobile coverage
- Many farms rely on connections below 10Mbps, with some areas still on sub-2Mbps services
- 4G coverage in rural areas is patchy at best, with significant indoor coverage gaps
- 5G coverage in rural areas is effectively non-existent on public networks
The government's broadband ambitions focus on fibre to premises, but running fibre to a farm two miles down a track, across someone else's land, with three separate wayleave agreements, can take years — if it happens at all.
Why This Matters for Agriculture
The connectivity gap isn't just an inconvenience. It's an economic barrier that prevents farms from adopting technology that could transform their viability.
Precision Farming
Requires continuous data from IoT sensors across the farm. Soil moisture, nutrient levels, weather conditions — all feeding into systems that optimise irrigation, fertilisation, and crop management. Without reliable connectivity, the sensors can't report, and the systems can't work.
Livestock Monitoring
Depends on GPS collars and health sensors transmitting data back to a central system. If there are coverage blackspots — and on most farms, there are — you lose visibility of animals in exactly the areas where problems are most likely to occur.
Autonomous Machinery
Needs consistent low-latency connectivity to operate safely. A self-driving tractor that loses its data connection in the middle of a field isn't just useless — it's dangerous.
Market Access
Online marketplaces, direct-to-consumer sales, booking systems for farm diversification activities — all need reliable internet that many farms simply don't have.
The Llanthony Valley Lesson
We know this problem intimately because we've solved it.
The Llanthony Valley, deep in the Brecon Beacons, is a remote Welsh community that was surviving on a 2Mbps connection — when it worked at all. No provider was willing to invest in infrastructure for a handful of homes and farms.
We deployed a private 5G network that transformed the valley. Residents went from barely loading a webpage to streaming, video calling, and running businesses from home.
The terrain in Llanthony — steep valleys, dense woodland, scattered properties — is exactly the terrain that characterises most UK farms. If private 5G works there, it works on farms.
What Comes After Connectivity
Once reliable broadband is in place, smart agriculture becomes practical rather than aspirational:
Year one: Basic connectivity transforms daily operations. Farm management software works properly. Online ordering and sales become reliable. Staff can communicate across the farm.
Year two: IoT sensors start providing real data. Soil monitoring informs planting decisions. Livestock trackers reduce time spent physically checking animals. Security sensors provide theft alerts.
Year three and beyond: Autonomous machinery becomes viable. Drone operations provide aerial monitoring. The farm has enough data history to make genuine predictive decisions about crop management and animal health.
This isn't a fantasy roadmap. It's the progression that farms with good connectivity are already following. The only difference is that most UK farms are stuck at step zero.
Private 5G vs the Alternatives
For farms in poorly connected areas, the options are limited:
| Option | Pros | Cons | |--------|------|------| | Fibre | Excellent speeds | Slow installation, expensive, wayleave issues | | Satellite | Available anywhere | High latency, weather-dependent, costs escalate | | Fixed wireless | Decent speeds | Requires line-of-sight, not always available | | Public 4G/5G | No installation needed | Not available in most rural farming areas | | Private 5G | Purpose-built coverage, low latency, managed | Requires local deployment |
For farms where fibre isn't coming and public mobile coverage doesn't exist, private 5G is often the most practical path to the connectivity that smart agriculture requires.
If you're a farmer or estate manager hitting the connectivity wall, talk to us. We deploy in exactly the terrain where farms operate. Simple pricing, managed operation, deployed in weeks. Learn more about our rural networks or explore our agriculture sector page.