Precision Agriculture Connectivity Act of 2018

Precision Agriculture Connectivity Act of 2018

This bill requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to establish the Task Force for Reviewing the Connectivity and Technology Needs of Precision Agriculture in the United States.

The task force's duties include:

identifying and measuring current gaps in the availability of broadband Internet access service on agricultural land; developing policy recommendations to promote the rapid, expanded deployment of fixed and mobile broadband Internet access service on unserved agricultural land, with a goal of achieving reliable capabilities on 95% of agricultural land in the United States by 2025; promoting effective policy and regulatory solutions that encourage the adoption of broadband Internet access service on farms and ranches and promote precision agriculture; recommending specific new rules or amendments to existing FCC rules; recommending specific steps that the FCC should take to obtain reliable and standardized data measurements of the availability of broadband Internet access service as necessary to target funding support, from future FCC programs dedicated to the deployment of such service, to unserved agricultural land; and recommending specific steps that the FCC should consider to ensure that the expertise of the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and available farm data are reflected in such future FCC programs. USDA and the FCC shall jointly submit to the task force a list of all federal programs or resources available for the expansion of broadband Internet access service on unserved agricultural land.