Satellite GPS signals have been restored for anxious Australian grain farmers

Inmarsat, the operator of the satellite which struck trouble late on Sunday, says it has been progressively restoring services.

Many farmers today rely on the GPS signal to sow their crops and they are keen take advantage of the early break to the season after good rains on the weekend.

After a frustrating two days, farmers are reporting the signal has returned to some areas from late yesterday and this morning.

Inmarsat's I-4 F1 satellite, which provides signals to Australia and New Zealand , suffered a "temporary loss of services" on Sunday and the company said it "immediately instigated its recovery procedures".

The restoration of the signals were prioritised with preference to safety services.

"Inmarsat can confirm that immediately following the incident, it instigated the process to transfer maritime safety services, in line with the IMSO approved operational process to a contingency satellite," the company said.

"That process was completed successfully."

The second priority was aviation services.

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"This will be followed by the transfer of Inmarsat-C services from the contingency satellite back to I-4 F1 and then a focus on the restoration of other services."

While some ag providers using the Inmarsat satellite were trying to find workarounds by swapping frequencies for some customers, it meant several frustrating days for many farmers.

Inmarsat said the other satellites in its L-band fleet were unaffected by the incident, which has still not been explained.

"This includes Inmarsat's two new L-band satellites - I-6 F1 and F2 - which will be joined in 2027 by a further three new micro L-band satellites, the Inmarsat-8s, specifically designed to enhance safety service back-up for L-band customers."

GPS signals have revolutionised seeding with auto-steer tractors using location technology which need to be centimetre perfect.