Microsoft’s rural plans

Microsoft wants to extend broadband services to rural America by using the buffer zones separating individual television channels in the airwaves.

Microsoft said Tuesday it will team up with rural telecommunications providers in 12 states, from the Dakotas and Arizona to Maine. The strategy calls for a combination of private and public investments and regulatory cooperation from the Federal Communications Commission to get 2 million rural Americans connected to high-speed Internet in the next five years.

Getting more people connected in rural areas has been a priority of the Trump administration.

The National Association of Broadcasters dismissed the plan as the “height of arrogance” for Microsoft to “demand free, unlicensed spectrum after refusing to bid on TV airwaves” in a recent FCC auction.

“Policymakers should not be misled by slick Microsoft promises that threaten millions of viewers with loss of lifeline broadcast TV programming,” spokesman Dennis Wharton said in a statement.

Although the buffer zones, known as white spaces, are currently unused, Wharton said they are important for preventing adjacent channels from interfering with each other.

That’s less of a problem in most rural areas, said Doug Brake, a telecommunications policy analyst with the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a think tank that includes Microsoft among its donors.

Microsoft said the FCC will have to guarantee that these buffer zones remain available nationwide, and make even more such zones available in rural areas.