(Image source from: azcentral.com)

Phoenix:
At the biannual meeting of Western Governors Association, panelists discussed about the latest Rural Boradband plan. Microsoft executive stated that “Rural areas in Arizona will be among the first to try a new broadband internet technology” This New Broadband Internet technology being launched in Rural Phoenix, by Microsoft will change the course of technology access for Rural Americans.

Arizona is among the 13 states which are identified as the first one’s picked, to test pilot this new Microsoft initiative. This is to bring advanced internet access to rural areas.

Ryan Harkins, director of state affairs and public policy at Microsoft explained during the session yesterday, and said, "We're launching a series of pilot projects in states around the country over the course of five years" He was a part of the panel discussing the past and future of Western United States.

More technological breakthroughts are expected over the course of next few months in cloud computing and also bringing out the Airband technology to several rural belts across Arizona. This new Internet Broadband technology uses TV white spaces or the unused TV channels to transmit Wi-Fi signals to rural small businesses. The range is 10 miles for this transmission.

"TV white spaces provide broadband using unused TV channels over the air," Harkins said. "there’s a base station, hook it up to the internet, broadcast the signal to a 10-mile radius to homes, businesses and farms."

Though the internet speeds through Airband are "just good enough."

"It's not fiber speeds, but it is possible to achieve speeds that meet the FCC's definition of broadband," Harkins said. "Which is fast enough to stream a movie or do anything a small business or homeowner wants to do."

“The base station towers will be paid for by Microsoft and local internet providers will offer the internet service” , he said.

"We'll provide capital investment to get the (project) off the ground," Harkins said. "It is much cheaper to build the infastructure needed to get broadband up and running than traditional forms of broadband, which has been the classic problem as to why we have this broadband gap."

Harkins said, “This technology, will allow people in the far reaches of Arizona and other rural communities to take advantage of the benefits that technology is providing to the rest of the country. We live in a time of profound change. It is a revolution that is driven largely by cloud computing. This trend is changing everything. Every industry."

Other panelists said that access to internet can increase education across K-12 schools. "The country's attention as it relates to K-12 education seems to be changing," said panelist Tom Hodges, an analyst for Gallup Inc. "Maybe tests are necessary, but not sufficient."

Broadband gap is not just a technological miss but a danger to economic growth of entire Western Arizona, Hodges stated. "We are not going to get the growth ... we have been getting," he said.

By Minu Manisha