A new commercial wireless network to carry data to and from sensors and other connected objects - the so called Internet of Things - was launched in Wellington today.
KotahiNet founder Vikram Kumar said it could help sheep and beef farmers through to growers.
"The Internet of Things is about connecting the physical world to the internet. Take the case of a farmer - right now a lot of the work in watering the fields is guess work, but imagine if we could measure the soil moisture at any given time, integrate that with the forecasted weather and then use an intelligent model to tell the farm precisely how much water he needs to give to his farm."
He said that would move from a guess work and experience model to using real time data and making 'intelligent decisions'.
KotahiNet would be the link between sensors through to the farmer's computer, he said.
"Our basic goal is to provide the network connectivity that transports the data from connected objects on farms...to the internet and we're then able to control it."
KotahiNet creates the process for what farmers need, he said.
"Olive oil growers for example aren't interested in network and sensors, what they want is a notification when frost is coming, so we provide that."
