Microsoft's Airband Technology: Expanding Broadband Access

Microsoft Airband Technology: Opening Up Access to Broadband across Less Privileged Societies.

The Airband program from Microsoft is intended to bridge the divide of the digital divide with providing more access to broadband in needy communities all around the world. Such technology intended on bridging aspects in its aim at making high speed internet accessible, affordable and make rural as well as remote areas have that it changes the connectivity for millions with little to no access at all.

The Digital Divide
This is now one of the most crucial tools for any economy, education, health care, and social connectivity. Still, it remains a far cry from most of the rural and underserved communities in a country, given their poor internet infrastructure. In this regard, the Microsoft Airband initiative seeks to fill this gap, using sustainable approaches in broadband coverage expansion across the country. It is mainly focusing on rural areas, where it is quite challenging to introduce broadband services.

Target is to attain by 2025, with over 3 million alone in rural America and matching growth opportunities for the other countries of the world around.

How Airband Technology Works

Airband technology will rely much on many latest innovations including the unused white spaces between broadcast television channels and satellite links, cheaper access to broadband connectivity where fiber and cable broadband cannot be developed.

The prospect for internet expansion is bright using white spaces from the TV since they will facilitate long-range wireless communication. They can travel a longer distance and penetrate obstacles like buildings and trees, thus ideal for use in rural and remote areas where it becomes hard and expensive to construct physical infrastructure.

Collaboration with local internet service providers and technology companies is important for the delivery of Airband. It uses these white spaces in the TV spectrum to provide reliable internet connectivity where creating broadband infrastructure would previously have proven too costly.

Increased Global Accessibility
While Airband begins with its initial concentration on the countryside in the United States, Microsoft has done better in reaching all over globally as it looks forward to bridging the internet connection gap for regions that are left untouched in most of the African and Asian countries, plus Latin America. Through partnership with various service providers from the country, Microsoft has emerged with incredible success in Internet coverage within various countries, such as Kenya, Colombia, and India.

Microsoft makes the technology responsive to the areas of operation as well as scalable across geographies while having a great working relation with local communities and businesses to bring the difference.
It brings access to broadband available yet sustainable in the long run driven by community interests.
Deploying broadband infrastructure is not an easy task in rural and remote areas. Some of the issues are the lack of access to power, geographical obstacles, and regulatory hurdles. To overcome such issues, the Airband technology has been designed to function on existing infrastructure to avoid large-scale investment in new physical networks.

It involved the use of alternative renewable resource options, this one being solar energy systems, that these broadband towers will not suddenly quit working due to blackouts due to electric power. Thus it really does make a tremendous difference in such isolated areas vulnerable to blackout often.

This includes co-ordination between the local authorities and the governing body so that, without contravening any specific policy or law, this product can be implemented in a highly effective way.

Bringing People into Digital Literacy
This connects the communities to the internet but so that they could get as much from the broadband as possible, Microsoft has worked on digital literacy programs. It does this by empowering the people and small business owners to know the best ways to put the internet in their hands-whether for academic and health service uptake or to initiate and grow business.

It has partnered with several nongovernmental organizations and other players to prepare the people in the disadvantaged regions with the digital literacy to maximize use of connectivity set to be realized.
Economic and Social Benefits
It shall unlock broadband access and, therefore the technologies availed by this connectivity, and astronomically give high economic and social benefits. High speed Internet brought by Microsoft to the underserved regions will open new avenues for education, health facility provisioning and business development.

It's likely to bring quality education resources to students within a rural setting in adopting online sources. This therefore, increases customers in reach for a small-scale entrepreneur, enhances proper agricultural practice to farmers because with technology they reach their markets while it can assist in accessing other distant patients on telemedicine through remote consultation because other basic services cannot be covered.

In most of the countries, more connectivity will be able to fill in the digital gap and reduce inequalities between rural and urban populations since it will ensure citizens enjoy all the available resources and opportunities within the digital space.

Future Plans and Goals
Microsoft will scale up for the Airband initiative with continued technology enhancement that targets improving available technology as useful and additionally beneficial to the underdeveloped areas in the near future. It researches and develops new technologies that can increase performances, though at much cheaper costs, thereby ensuring even easier deployment of services providers.

Microsoft will take this high-speed broadband to millions more around the world through continuous innovations and working with local partners, helping create an even more connected and inclusive world.
Source: Microsoft Airband