Microsoft plans to provide high-speed internet using TV airwaves

Microsoft yesterday announced an initiative to provide high-speed internet to millions of rural US citizens through television airwaves. To start with, Microsoft will launch a five-year effort to bring broadband connectivity to 2 million underserved rural US citizens.

Microsoft, whose products included the Windows operating system, Office 365 productivity suite and Skype video service, hoped other countries and the government would support the Rural Airband Initiative as it called the initiative. However, the plan had run into opposition from broadcasters who were reluctant to share the airwaves.

''This is really all about getting everybody online in rural communities,'' Brad Smith, Microsoft's chief legal officer, told Reuters. ''That includes consumers, it includes businesses, it includes farmers and agricultural enterprises and it includes schools.''

Providing broadband to all 23 million under-served rural Americans is expected to cost around $12 billion, Microsoft said. Smith said the company will spend whatever it takes to reach the targeted two million people.

It plans to launch at least 12 projects across 12 states within the next 12 months, and has partnerships with telecom companies including CenturyLink in Washington state, and hopes for more partners, Smith said.

He said the goal of the company was to work with as many people as possible. He added, he hoped, the Trump Administration will consider government funding for the project as part of an infrastructure bill expected in the fall.

Meanwhile, Smith wrote in a blog on Microsoft site, "The time is right for the nation to set a clear and ambitious but achievable goal – to eliminate the rural broadband gap within the next five years by  4 July, 2022. We believe the nation can bring broadband coverage to rural America in this timeframe, based on a new strategic approach that combines private sector capital investments focused on expanding broadband coverage through new technologies, coupled with targeted and affordable public-sector support.

"Our call for a new strategy reflects in part our own experience as a company working around the world to make use of what's called TV White Spaces spectrum. This is unused spectrum in the UHF television bands. This powerful bandwidth is in the 600 MHz frequency range and enables wireless signals to travel over hills and through buildings and trees."