Pilot white space Wi-Fi network to expand in southern Virginia
Microsoft is supporting the launch of a Wi-Fi network that utilizes television white spaces, to provide connectivity in rural southern Virginia.
The “Homework Network” is being constructed by wireless internet service provider B2X Online using white space equipment from Adaptrum that consists of base stations on towers or near schools equipped with fiber connections, and radios installed in students’ homes; the technology has a reach of home up to four miles away from the base station, according to a spokesperson.
The initial white space Wi-Fi network network has been successfully tested in 100 homes in Charlotte County, Va., and now that number is set to expand to 1,000 homes with 3,000 students in Charlotte County and neighboring Halifax County by the end of the year. Microsoft said that about half of the students in those counties don’t have broadband access at home.
The Wi-Fi network provides free access to educational content by giving students access to their schools’ online networks, so that they can complete homework and access learning tools.
Fiber provider Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corp. is paying for the equipment and installation and plans to offer commercial services in the second phase of the project in partnership with B2X Online. The program also has support from the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission.
Microsoft’s support is part of its Affordable Access Initiative, through which it has been supporting projects to extend internet access in underserved areas in the U.S. and globally. Paul Garnett, Microsoft’s senior director of Affordable Access Initiatives, discusses the program in the videos below:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTOJ8vX2QfQ[/embedyt]
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfrvTy-qxlc[/embedyt]
