Microsoft touts rural internet initiative
Microsoft aims to bring broadband internet to millions of rural Americans within the next five years through what is now unused TV spectrum, the company announced Tuesday.
Microsoft said its ambitious plan, dubbed the Rural Airband Initiative, will begin in 12 states where the company will invest in broadband connectivity alongside local telecom services. One of the partner telecom companies is CenturyLink, which is working on a broadband project in eastern Washington state, Microsoft president Brad Smith said in an interview.
Microsoft said it does not intend to enter the telecom business itself or directly profit from the initiative. Instead, every dollar Microsoft earns from revenue-sharing with telecom operators — at least during the first five years — will be reinvested to fund additional broadband coverage, Smith said.
The strategy of turning to unused TV spectrum, known as “white space,” to expand high-speed Internet access is not new to Microsoft, which has long sought to use vacant airwaves to provide cheap, wireless broadband. The company said it targeted the unused TV spectrum rather than fiber-optic cables or fixed wireless technology, such as 4G, because it is significantly cheaper.
According to Microsoft, there are 23.4 million rural Americans living without high-speed Internet access. Google and Facebook have both sought to explore the use of drones, lasers and satellite technology to bring connectivity to the developing world. Facebook launched its Internet. org initiative to connect the nearly 5 billion people around the world who do not have access to affordable Internet connections.
Microsoft’s plan would try to bring broadband Internet to 2 million people in rural areas of the United States by July 2022.
But some experts say Microsoft’s strategy may not be the best way to go about expanding Internet access.
“We think increasing rural broadband is a good idea, but not the way Microsoft is proposing it,” said Dennis Wharton, executive vice president of the National Association of Broadcasters. “They are making a lot of wild promises. Their white-space idea has been around for over a decade and has proven to be a compete, abject failure.”
He also argued that Microsoft was seeking a free government handout to use the spectrum rather than bidding for airwaves through the Federal Communications Commission’s incentive auction.
Others praised the initiative. Microsoft’s plan represents the culmination of a decade of advocacy, said Harold Feld, senior vice president of the consumer group Public Knowledge.
Microsoft said that the total cost of eliminating the rural broadband gap would fall between $8 billion and $12 billion. But Smith declined to say how much Microsoft would contribute.