ACCRA, GHANA -- Tuesday
at the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance Global Summit in Accra, Microsoft
Corp. announced new TV white space partnerships and projects on four
continents, including its newest partnership with SpectraLink Wireless
and Facebook to provide low-cost wireless connectivity to students and
faculty at universities in Koforidua, Ghana. Globally, Microsoft is now
involved in white spaces pilots in 10 countries.TV white spaces, the unused portions of wireless spectrum in the
frequency bands generally set aside for television transmissions, can be
utilized for a range of applications including the following:
- Providing low-cost connectivity
- Connecting rural areas to broadband
- Improving in-building wireless networks
- Creating hotspots for Internet access
- Offloading mobile traffic
Microsoft’s commercial partnership with SpectraLink Wireless and
research partnership with Facebook will deploy wireless networks
covering entire campuses at All Nations University College and Koforidua
Polytechnic. This pilot is part of Microsoft’s 4Afrika Initiative
to help improve the continent’s global competitiveness. A core goal of
the 4Afrika Initiative is to facilitate access to technology for the
masses and to empower African students, entrepreneurs, developers and
others to become even more active global citizens.
For students and faculty at the universities, access to the network
will be coupled with productivity and communications applications as
well as Internet-enabled devices. The networks will use TV white
space-enabled radios and other wireless technologies to connect campus
buildings, as well as off-campus hostels where students live, to ensure
they have access to fast broadband. The project is operating under a TV
white space pilot license granted by the Ghana National Communications
Authority and is the only TV white space license currently issued in
West Africa.
Facebook’s main involvement in the project will be to collaborate with
Microsoft and SpectraLink Wireless on joint technology research to
better understand how TV white space spectrum and equipment can support
wireless Internet users today. These efforts will be led by Facebook’s
Connectivity Lab team, who are working on new technologies to support
Internet.org’s mission to make Internet access available to the
two-thirds of the world not yet connected.
Facebook, Microsoft and SpectraLink Wireless have a like-minded view
that a more abundant supply and flexible use of spectrum are important
aspects to affordably connect more people to the Internet, and the
companies plan to collaborate on the policy front. All three companies
involved in this pilot project are also members of the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance — a global, cross-industry alliance focused on increasing dynamic access to unused radio frequencies.
“TV white spaces technology, when combined with other low-cost
wireless technologies, such as Wi-Fi, offers a substantial opportunity
for businesses, consumers and governments around the world to improve
the economics of broadband network deployment and service delivery,”
said Paul Garnett, director in Microsoft’s Technology Policy Group.
“Through these projects worldwide, we are working with local private-
and public-sector partners to enable new consumer experiences, while
encouraging governments to make needed legal and regulatory changes to
allow this technology to be deployed more broadly.”
“This project will provide substantial benefit to students and faculty
at the universities,” said John Sarpong, CEO of SpectraLink Wireless.
“Until now, students at these universities have not had consistent
access to fast broadband, which is key to students’ ability to access
information and learning resources online and compete in the
21st-century economy. With SpectraLink Wireless’ Edutech-as-a-Service
platform, students and faculty will have access to the best productivity
applications on the market and Internet access at true broadband
speeds. All at a low cost per user per month. We look forward to rolling
this out in Koforidua and the rest of the country.”
Africa is not the only region where the company’s white spaces pilots
are flourishing. In Asia, Microsoft has helped to pioneer white spaces
pilots in Singapore and the Philippines. Last week, Microsoft was
announced as a founding member of Taiwan’s Dynamic Spectrum Access Pilot
Group, which aims to contribute to the creation and development of a
world-leading dynamic spectrum access ecosystem in Taiwan, leveraging
Taiwan’s tremendous capabilities in semiconductor design and
fabrication, component and devices manufacturing, and systems
integration and solutions. The group includes leading Taiwanese
companies, academic and research institutions, as well as Mediatek, the
Communications Research Center at the National Taiwan University, and
the Taiwan Institute for Information Industry. All are members of the
Dynamic Spectrum Alliance as well. The group will conduct pilot projects
in Taiwan for both rural broadband access and Internet of Things (IoT)
applications, such as Smart Grid, using TV white space radios.
In Latin America, Microsoft is involved in the region’s first white
spaces pilot in Uruguay, where the company is providing technical
support to Plan Ceibal, an initiative supporting the integration of
information and communications technologies into the country’s public
education system. Plan Ceibal will use TV white space technology
provided by Dynamic Spectrum Alliance member 6Harmonics to provide
broadband access to ten rural schools.
Finally, in the U.K., Microsoft is working with Ofcom and other
partners on a pilot in Glasgow. This will play a key role in providing
data to inform Ofcom’s legislative proposals for TV white spaces. The
pilot is being led by the Centre for White Space Communications at the
University of Strathclyde, with support from the Scottish Government's
Demonstrating Digital programme, and will use TV white space radios to
enable Wi-Fi hotspots and webcam image backhaul at various outdoor
locations within the university’s city center campus.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in
software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize
their full potential.
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