State of the Industry: Ubiquitous Broadband Is Key

AEM executives stress that widespread access to wireless connectivity must be part of a bipartisan infrastructure plan for 2021 and beyond.

Expanding broadband into rural areas as part of a comprehensive infrastructure bill is essential to ensure U.S. farmers and contractors remain globally competitive. (AGCO Corp.)

Bipartisanship and infrastructure: More of the former will (hopefully) help secure more of the latter. That sums up a recurrent theme during the Association of Equipment Manufacturers’ (AEM) mid-January media call to discuss the 2020 elections and what the results mean for the $288 billion equipment manufacturing industry in 2021.

Top of the list for the industry’s policy priorities, according to all three executives providing their input during the briefing, is infrastructure. “Passing policies that modernize U.S. infrastructure will allow our nation to address the 21st century global economy, and that’s through further investments in our nation’s roads, highways, bridges, rails, ports, airports and also to deliver broadband access through all of America,” said AEM president Dennis Slater.

The issue is one that traditionally garners wide bipartisan support – but not necessarily action. “I feel a heck of a lot more confident this year than I have in the past,” Slater said of a comprehensive infrastructure bill being introduced and actually passing under the Biden administration and the 117th Congress.

Renewed optimism for a long-term infrastructure initiative is buoyed by the belief that perhaps more can be accomplished now that the same political party controls both the executive and legislative branches. President Joe Biden stating that his administration’s economic recovery proposal will include “historic investments” in infrastructure, manufacturing, R&D and clean energy is another reason for a rosier outlook.

Prior to his inauguration, Biden floated a $2-trillion price tag to build a clean-energy economy and new infrastructure, focusing on electricity grids and universal broadband, among other areas, “to lay a new foundation for sustainable growth, compete in the global economy, withstand the impacts of climate change, and improve public health.” How to pay for such ambitious investments is another issue entirely and is likely where bipartisanship splinters.

“The 2021 definition of infrastructure is significantly extended from what it was in the mid-20th century when much of the country’s current physical infrastructure was built,” said Steve Berglund, AEM chair and executive chairman at Trimble Inc., a California-based technology services company that he mentioned allocates about three-quarters of its development resources to software. “Imagination will be important in developing a program that incorporates concepts such as autonomous vehicles or drones, digital construction, a connected but decentralized workforce, and ubiquitous high-reliability broadband connectivity.”

There it is again – ubiquitous broadband. Customer expectations in terms of technology and access to more and faster data have amplified since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Bob Crain, AEM vice chair and senior vice president and general manager of North American operations at AGCO Corp., the world’s largest equipment manufacturer focused solely on the ag industry. But many of its customers are in remote locales.

“This is going to be a necessity for our customers to be competitive,” Crain stressed, particularly as off-highway machines become increasingly defined by how well they fit into an information architecture enabling the entire construction site or farm to be managed together. “As part of an infrastructure bill, we would love to see expanding broadband into rural areas for our customers to be competitive with their worldwide competitors, with the availability of all the latest and greatest technologies,” he said.

The experts agreed that mobile is preferable to fiber-optic broadband. “The new generation of applications, either for farms or remote construction crews, increasingly rely on artificial intelligence and machine learning concepts, which in turn depend on access to big data, big databases,” said Berglund. “Without a robust wireless connection, you deprive work crews in remote areas access to those applications.”

Commenting on the greater demand for connectivity, Slater asserted: “When you hit a time of crisis, technology starts to rise up.” For the sake of the farmers and contractors looking to be more efficient and competitive, let’s hope bipartisan action also rises up.