Microsoft is rolling out a rural broadband plan — BUT

Microsoft is rolling out a rural broadband plan — but the Iowa counties that benefit aren't rural

 https://amp.desmoinesregister.com/amp/1284298002

Microsoft is partnering with Network Business Systems to expand internet service to some 126,700 people who do not have broadband service. But the three counties in Iowa that will benefit — Scott, Muscatine and Clinton — are urban.

"They’re not rural," said David Peters, an associate professor of sociology at Iowa State University.

Microsoft is partnering with the Geneseo, Illinois, company as part of its Airband initiative, which seeks to expand broadband service to 2 million people living in rural America by 2022.

Rural residents have long suffered from unequal access to high-speed internet. Providers often avoid the most remote areas because of unfavorable economics: They demand a high infrastructure investment, but smaller population bases offer limited potential.

FCC data show that about 98 percent of Iowans in urban areas have access to high-speed internet. Conversely, only 77.4 percent of rural residents have broadband access.

 

A Microsoft spokeswoman later said the tech giant is "investing in technology and expertise as well as digital literacy skills training." The agreement also allows Network Business Systems to leverage Microsoft’s suite of products including Azure, Office 365, and Dynamics.
Network Business Systems already was considering expanding its territory, but the Microsoft pact "kind of sealed the deal for us," Hoffman said.

The provider uses wireless towers to beam internet service across remote stretches of Iowa and Illinois. The company uses a mix of technology, including utilizing television white space, the unused portion of television airwaves. 

Network Business Systems operates 120 towers and frequently partners with farmers to place receivers on top of grain bins. Each tower can transmit five to seven miles, she said.

That avoids the high cost of laying fiberoptic wire to connect remote areas. But the technology is still unfamiliar to many, so having Microsoft's backing should help persuade customers, Hoffman said.

 

She said Network Business Systems works with farms, businesses and homeowners, specializing in connecting rural areas.

"We want to get it to the underserved, first and foremost," she said. "That's what our company started with."

 

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[This is the same offer extended to Iowa, Illinois and South Dakota published in the Argus Leader a few days ago -- https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/business-journal/2018/09/13/microsoft-corporation-improve-internet-rural-south-dakota/1290942002/

The companies announced their partnership Thursday, with plans to expand broadband access in Iowa, Illinois and South Dakota. The improvements will help an estimated 126,700 get better internet.

The company is partnering with Microsoft is part of Microsoft’s Airband Initiative, a national effort to extend broadband access across the rural U.S.

Microsoft plans to improve coverage for 2 million people by July, 2022.

OUR PUC has further clarified that those in SD wil probably be the extreme SE corner of SD.

 Again: see the highlighted key words and what that REALLY means for you and your neighbors!

Looks good on paper in  some beaurocrat's office, but is 126,700 -- households or people--there could be 4-6 in a Rural household and so the actual farms getting the services might be 30,000+--????????