Microsoft's President Brad Smith announced Oct. 5 that it will create private-public partnerships with small metro and rural communities in six states to invest in tech and tech jobs, including broadband internet. Smith said there are 23.4 million rural Americans who don't have broadband.
The TechSpark program was announced in Fargo, N.D., one of the six participating communities. Smith called TechSpark a "multi-year, multi-million dollar investment to help teach computer science to students, expand rural broadband and help create and fill jobs, among other things. The other programs will be in Texas, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming," Dave Kolpack reports for the Associated Press. Appleton, Wisconsin is the only other community that has been specifically named. The others will be named later.
Microsoft had announced in July that it wanted to expand broadband services in rural America by using white-space technology, a controversial concept we've covered here, here and here. Microsoft says the tech, which harnesses unused bandwidth between television stations to provide a sort of wi-fi, is cheaper than laying fiber-optic cable.
Once communities have broadband access, Microsoft says residents will be able to get jobs that require high-speed internet access.
The TechSpark program was announced in Fargo, N.D., one of the six participating communities. Smith called TechSpark a "multi-year, multi-million dollar investment to help teach computer science to students, expand rural broadband and help create and fill jobs, among other things. The other programs will be in Texas, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming," Dave Kolpack reports for the Associated Press. Appleton, Wisconsin is the only other community that has been specifically named. The others will be named later.
Microsoft had announced in July that it wanted to expand broadband services in rural America by using white-space technology, a controversial concept we've covered here, here and here. Microsoft says the tech, which harnesses unused bandwidth between television stations to provide a sort of wi-fi, is cheaper than laying fiber-optic cable.
Once communities have broadband access, Microsoft says residents will be able to get jobs that require high-speed internet access.
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