“Hello! Can you hear me? I think the signal—”… *Call Failed*.
Anyone who has dealt with rural cellular and internet connectivity has experienced this. Poor signal is a major bottleneck not only for chatting on the phone or checking Twitter, but also for getting data from your precision ag equipment to your office.
Enter Hologram.
Country connection: Hologram is a Chicago-based startup that designs products with connectivity in mind. They have developed a SIM card that will work with any carrier—helping people running complex, data-rich machinery in remote areas (aka farmers) have access to a reliable cellular connection.
Soundbite(s): “Hologram is a cellular platform that allows you to connect any device to any network instantaneously anywhere,” says Ben Forgan, CEO of Hologram.
“It’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off for them.” – Pepper Brooks, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
Why(Fi) is this important? The old saying “if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it” comes to mind. Farmers have access to more actionable data about their operations than ever with the rise of precision ag technologies. However, that data isn’t useful if you can’t get it to where you can work with it.
Hologram’s business model is not developing the next best ag sensor or tool, but is instead helping those tools easily and reliably connect to networks. Where WiFi can be geographically limiting, Hologram’s SIM cards would allow quality connection anywhere.
“Yeah, I hear you loud and clear.”