Microsoft wants all of Rural America to get high-speed broadband | Latest News

Microsoft invests in blank space networks, offering royalties access to patents.

 Microsoft wants to connect two million US rural wireless broadband high speed before the year 2022 with 12 pilot projects will start next year. The company also offers free access to its intellectual property to help make the rest of rural America.

Microsoft is not going to be an internet service provider. But the company "will invest in partnerships with telecommunications companies" creates wireless networks using spectrum television "white spaces," said Microsoft's chairperson, Brad Smith, in a blog post yesterday. "We and our partners will have at least 12 projects in operation in 12 countries in the next 12 months."

The 12 states are Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, New York, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

"Our goal is to stop the telecommunications business or even get direct benefits from these projects," said Smith. "We will invest in projects that need seed capital to expand broadband coverage, for a percentage of revenue for operators to recover our investment, and then use to invest this income in additional projects to further expand coverage."

Microsoft also said it would provide free access to copyright "at least 39 patents and sample source code related to the technologies we developed" to use the spectrum of white spaces in rural areas.


"Powerful bandwidth"

Witruimtespektrum owes its name to its origins as the spectrum between TV channels.

"This powerful bandwidth in the 600 MHz frequency and make wireless signals capable of hills and through the buildings of travel and trees," Smith wrote.

The recent auction Federal Communications Commission that moved to mobile TV brecbandmaatskappye licenses such as T-Mobile USA, also a 14MHz spectrum for unlicensed use and reserved wireless microphones. The unlicensed spectrum is not limited to a single entity. Anyone can use it, provided that certain rules designed to avoid interference with other devices and services are met.

Smith, the FCC encouraged to ensure that the three channels are available below 700 MHz for wireless use on an unlicensed basis in all markets in the country, with additional blank television spaces available in smaller markets and Rural areas

Microsoft has a lot of experience with witruimtenetwerke abroad "targets 20 space television projects in 17 countries deployed that served 185,000 users," Smith wrote. Now is the time for white space networks to accelerate in the US, he wrote: 
 "In 2010, the FCC rules adopted the use of TV white spaces in the United States of America. It took years of additional work to implement the building blocks needed for using this spectrum scale as affordable. We and others have worked to develop the technology hardware and software, to develop standards in terms of industry and innovation in a practical business model". 

Rural broadband gap

Microsoft pointed to a finding of the FCC's research to 34 million Americans have access to the broadband download with at least 25 Mbps and 3 Mbps uploaded. According to the FCC, 23.4 million of them live in rural areas.

Many of the areas barely populated in the U.S. can benefit from wireless Internet services for the home, as they are not upgraded to cable or veselinternetnetwerke. Microsoft said it connects with Boston Consulting Group. It worked in a study that found that blank space technology is the best approach for communities with a density of population between two and 200 people per square mile.

Due to cost constraints, the use of satellite Internet in areas with less than two people per square kilometer, while "fixed and fiber-free wireless house" is the best approach in areas with densities More than 200 people per square mile, Smith wrote. .

By using this technology, Microsoft said that the US could eliminate rural breestage at a cost of $ 8 billion to $ 12 billion, "an 80 percent lower than the cost of using fiber cables Sun and ... more than 50 percent cheaper than the cost of current wireless technologies such as 4G. "

The two million Americans that Microsoft planned to commit, is only a fraction of 23.4 million that do not have access. Therefore, the Microsoft Access royalties to their patents and source code example, Smith wrote.

"If 23 million additional customers can access the Internet at broadband speeds, it will benefit all technology companies in the United States," he wrote.