Trimble to Offer More Acres of Sub-Inch Accuracy With VRS Now Ag Service

News provided by

Mar 24, 2010, 06:30 ET

SUNNYVALE, Calif., March 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Trimble (Nasdaq: TRMB) announced today the launch of Trimble® VRS Now™ Ag service for farmers in nine U.S. states—Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi and Nebraska. Additionally, European growers can receive correction services in Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, Czech Republic and Estonia. As with corrections supplied by conventional Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) radio towers, Trimble VRS™ network corrections provide sub-inch repeatable Global Positioning System (GPS) accuracy for precision farming operations such as tillage, planting, spraying and field preparation.

The Trimble VRS solution uses proprietary software to create correction models for regions covered by the network. The VRS service can provide growers with instant access to high-accuracy RTK positioning without the need for a local base station. VRS corrections are valuable in areas with natural obstructions such as trees and hilly terrain due to the fact that corrections are obtained by a cellular modem, rather than through the line-of-sight signals provided by an RTK tower.

Trimble pioneered RTK in the early 1990s as a means of delivering high-accuracy GPS positioning. Today, there are more than 750 million acres covered by Trimble agriculture RTK base stations. The VRS Now Ag service was developed to deliver high-accuracy positioning via cellular communications and provides more than 400 million acres of sub-inch accuracy.

"We are very pleased to provide Trimble VRS Now Ag service to nine U.S. states and five European countries," said Erik Arvesen, vice president and general manager for Trimble's Agriculture Division. "VRS Now Ag service provides an additional high-accuracy correction option for farmers who require reliable sub-inch positioning for their crucial field operations. Trimble VRS Now is fully supported and dedicated to the success of farmer field operations."

For more information visit www.trimble.com/agriculture/TrimbleVRSNowAg.aspx or contact your local Trimble dealer at www.trimble.com/locator.

About Trimble

Trimble applies technology to make field and mobile workers in businesses and government significantly more productive. Solutions are focused on applications requiring position or location—including surveying, construction, agriculture, fleet and asset management, public safety and mapping. In addition to utilizing positioning technologies, such as GPS, lasers and optics, Trimble solutions may include software content specific to the needs of the user. Wireless technologies are utilized to deliver the solution to the user and to ensure a tight coupling of the field and the back office. Founded in 1978, Trimble is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif.

For more information, visit: www.trimble.com.

GTRMB

SOURCE Trimble