Microsoft is spearheading a program for bringing broadband internet to the rural US using television “white-space” technology, which sends internet data over unused broadcast frequencies set aside for television channels: base stations tap into a database, ask what television spectrum is unused in the area (the “white space”), and send broadband data to customers using that frequency. Microsoft is pitching this tech specifically due to its lower cost and signal efficiency.



“One thing we’ve concluded is just how important broadband is for all kinds of things,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said in an interview ahead of the announcement. It’s not just streaming high-definition movies, he said. Slow or nonexistent connections can hinder agriculture, business, education and health care, he said. Broadband “is about, increasingly, the necessities of life.” His speech Tuesday is designed to raise the profile of the TV white-space technology, in which base stations tap into a database, ask what television spectrum is unused in the area (the “white space”), and send broadband data to customers using that frequency.

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Source: [H]ardOCP – Microsoft Proposes B Program to Bring Broadband Internet to Rural America