Microsoft Plans To Bring Internet Access To 40 Million People By 2022 32
Almost 30 years after the World Wide Web was first invented, there are still billions of people that don't have access to any sort of internet connectivity. Microsoft wants to change that by using its 2017 Airband Initiative to streamline efforts to build out internet access across Africa, Latin America and Asia. "Moving forward, the company plans to connect 40 million people across the world to the internet by 2022," reports Engadget. From the report: Initially, Microsoft will focus on rural and remote communities in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa, with other regions to follow. The company adds that it plans to employ a four-part approach that will focus on working with local ISPs and communities to build out affordable and reliable internet access. Microsoft is pushing regulators for access to TV White Space (TVWS), which are wireless frequencies that can be repurposed to deliver internet access across a wide area. Microsoft is also working to build out internet access in rural communities across the U.S. The company currently aims to bring high-speed internet access to more than 9 million people in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas.
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Japan? Once you get outside the major cities and roads, even cell service is spotty. Smaller towns? Your options are cell or DSL.
Sweden outside the major cities? Hope you like DSL that slows to a crawl when it rains. They just recently got fiber where they live.
Where I live, we've had cable internet for nearly 20 years and "Good" cable internet for 15.
Europe an
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I'm guessing Japan and Sweden have completely different standards on what "outside major cities" mean, since the population density in Sweden is less than 1/10th of Japan. I had DSL for many years, the line I had rain made no difference so anecdotes are hard to discuss. The figures here from Norway (Sweden's neighbor), we're even more rural with a population density of 16/km^2 vs 23 for Sweden and 34 for the US:
71% have access to fiber.
86% have access to >100/10 Mbit internet
97% have access to a >4/0.
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Those areas will not remain in poverty forever, and they will need devices with which to access the internet... Microsoft is trying to get these users locked in...
In many poorer countries where internet access is only available relatively recently, mobile devices are ubiquitous and many people have never heard of microsoft.
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Those areas will not remain in poverty forever, and they will need devices with which to access the internet..
They already have devices which access the internet. You should see exactly how cheap Chinese cell phones can be. Everyone has one, even in Africa.
White Spaces (Score:3)
are no mystery. They're just unused bandwidth in the 600mhz range. Unused channels are allocated for various unlicensed usages but there are certain specifications for operations. Here's the part 15 rule change.
https://www.fcc.gov/document/a... [fcc.gov]
Read what MS is actually requesting from the FCC here;
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/at... [fcc.gov]
Be sure to read the fine print. (Score:1)
Microsoft wants to change that by using its 2017 Airband Initiative ...
"Air Guitar sold separately."
Um ... (Score:2)
Microsoft is pushing regulators for access to TV White Space (TVWS)
Fox "News" -- or is that the TV Blonde Space? :-)
Re: Um ... (Score:1)
It's Rachel Maddog.
and later new a US embargo force Microsoft to stop (Score:1)
Scammers (Score:2)
Over Priced o365 (Score:2, Troll)
so altruistic.
Ya, let's pepper a few under served US locations then and the bones to Comcast so prairie people can be robbed too.....
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2024 (Score:1)
Elon Musk / Tony Stark / Iron Man is working on bringing internet to absolutely everyone on the planet via satellite by 2024 for about $75 / mo. Those poor countries that want to subsidize internet for their people can then do it much cheaper by simply paying Elon, rather than the costs of construction of cell towers and fiber lines and so forth over their land and paying forever to maintain it while still not penetrating the population 100%.
Third time's a charm (Score:3)
Isn't this their third attempt at this?
First it was the Microsoft Network - it was going to be awesome, you'd dial up to it and get all the possible content you could imagine from them. There was no way you'd need the Internet if Microsoft provided it to you instead. Despite years of pushing it Microsoft-style to the world, the world said no and used the Internet. "MSN" became a website that most people ignored.
Then they thought, if it's the Internet you want, we can provide it to you. Bill Gates was still at the helm and planned a constellation of loads of LEO satellites which would somehow beam the Internet to the whole world and once again, we'd all be pleased to use it in place of whatever other solution was available at the time. Cheap broadband and expensive launches essentially put that plan to bed, but not before he'd talked about it dunno how many times. Various space people were concerned that having so many satellites in LEO could mean a 'space junk' hit would cause a chain reaction, making LEO a dangerous place for generations to come.
And now this... Somewhat less over-bearing than the previous two attempts, but right in there with Facebook and Google's plans to "liberate the masses". Oh I can't wait...
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SpaceX Starlink will make this Irrelivent (Score:2)
LEO Sats! [wikipedia.org]
Thanks Microsoft (Score:2)
Africa, Latin America and Asia
In the meantime rural USA is still completely fucked.
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To be fair, they've fucked themselves. I'd be thrilled if Internet access was a public utility. I'd be happy to pay more in taxes to pay for it, because it would benefit everybody. Rural USA are the ones that hate the government (except when it sends the farmers cash, or pays for their Social Security, or pays for their Medicare, or pays for their roads, or pays for their food stamps, etc.) and keep voting against Internet regulation.
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TBF, it's hard to fix all of the third world countries.
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Africa, Latin America and Asia
In the meantime rural USA is still completely fucked.
The urban and suburban USA are also fucked.
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