Tractor in a field with abstract grid lines in magenta.

Animal tracking on remote pastures with NB-IoT and Satellite

The Spanish provider Digitanimal S.L. connects farm animals on pastures via IoT. By default, tracking is carried out via NB-IoT, and if there is no coverage, satellite connectivity can be activated in the app – so the farmer can always keep an eye on his herd even from a distance.

Thanks to NB-IoT and satellite connectivity, farmers can keep an eye on their animals anywhere – even where there’s no network coverage. That’s what makes our solution unique and indispensable.

Carlos Callejero, CEO at Digitanimal

3 steps to your IoT use case

Challenges

Many farmers manage widely scattered pastures, often far from the main farm. Monitoring the animals is time-consuming – especially as fewer young people enter agriculture, leading to a shortage of staff for daily checks. Keeping an eye on large areas is becoming increasingly difficult, and the call for digital solutions is growing louder. Yet in remote regions, patchy mobile coverage makes digital monitoring a real challenge – even though animal welfare remains the top priority.

Solution

With the IoT solution from Digitanimal and Deutsche Telekom, animals are reliably connected – even on remote pastures. Robust GPS trackers on the collar transmit location data energy-efficiently via NB-IoT. If no terrestrial network is available, the tracker can be switched to satellite conectivity via the app – based on the 3GPP standard. Farmers can activate the satellite option individually for each animal in the app, ensuring reliable data transmission even in remote areas. The platform continuously analyzes animal behavior: if an animal stays in the same spot for too long or remains inactive over a longer period, an automatic alert is triggered

Customer benefits

The combination of cellular and satellite connectivity enables near-complete coverage – even in hard-to-reach areas. Farmers save time searching for animals, detect anomalies faster, and can respond more precisely. Through the app, they can flexibly choose when to activate satellite connectivity, keeping costs under control. The solution enhances efficiency, animal welfare, and transparency in herd management.

Would you like to learn more?

Digitanimal: Smart animal tracking using NB-IoT and satellite technology
Animal welfare meets technology: With NB-IoT and satellite technology, animals can be monitored wherever they are – for less effort and greater control.
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Satellite IoT
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