Thanks for this interesting update.
Here in Berlin, Elektra Wagenrad from Freifunk has been working on ironing out the last few kinks in an open hardware TVWS MIMO down-converter.
This will be a cost-effective hardware plugin to standard WiFi MiMo antenna ports allowing standard WiFi & IP mesh protocols to run over the TVWS band, in a Community Network friendly and decentralized manner.
We are hoping to showcase progress of this and more in November at The Internet Commons Forum, consisting of an IGF pre-event and special external sessions planned while the IGF community is in town.
Adam.
Hi All -
I just wanted to share this info re TVWS and connecting people.
Best,
Jane
Internet Society | www.internetsociety.org
Skype: janercoffin
Mobile/WhatsApp: +1.202.247.8429
On 7/3/19, 10:35 AM, "1st-mile-nm on behalf of Richard Lowenberg" <1st-mile-nm-bounces@mailman.dcn.org on behalf of rl@1st-mile.org> wrote:
Microsoft, Sacred Wind attack digital divide in rural NM
By: Kevin Robinson-Avila / Journal Staff Writer 6 days ago
(See the article for photos)
https://www-abqjournal-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.abqjournal.com/1333920/microsoft-sacred-wind-attack-digital-divide.html/amp
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Albuquerque-based Sacred Wind Communications is
partnering with Microsoft Corp. to provide wireless broadband to remote
New Mexico communities through unused TV spectrum.
Sacred Wind will install Microsoft technology to tap into “TV white
spaces,” or unused UHF and VHF broadcast spectrum, to potentially
provide high-speed internet for the first time to up to 40,000 rural
households over the next eight years, Sacred Wind CEO John Badal told
the Journal.
“This technology allows us to leap frog over older technologies to get
broadband to more rural areas,” Badal said. “Microsoft’s equipment costs
about the same as other technologies widely used today, but it has much
farther reach. The radio waves travel longer distances, and they can go
through thick foliage, penetrate walls and roll over hills.”
The Federal Communications Commission made UHF and VHF spectrum
available for broadband several years ago. But new equipment to manage
carrier-grade broadband signals with enough capacity to satisfy
customers was needed by providers like Sacred Wind to tap into TV white
spaces, Badal said.
With Microsoft equipment in hand, the availability of TV spectrum could
now open a lot more rural communities to affordable, fixed wireless
service.
“Those frequencies are being used in urban areas, but they’re unused and
available where there are no local TV channels, which is most of rural
America,” Badal said.
The partnership is part of the Microsoft Airband Initiative, which aims
to expand broadband to 3 million unserved people by July 2022. Under the
initiative, launched in July 2017, Microsoft has signed partnerships
with local service providers in 16 states. That will grow to 25 states
by year-end.
“The broadband gap is hindering tribal and rural communities from
reaping the social and economic benefits that come with access to the
internet,” said Shelley McKinley, Microsoft general manager of
technology and corporate responsibility, in a prepared statement. “Our
partnership with Sacred Wind Communications will bring reliable,
high-speed Internet to underserved communities in New Mexico so that
they can access the same opportunities as their urban counterparts.”
Sacred Wind will install transmitting microwave equipment on existing
towers, and will also build a few new tower sites. It will attach
receiving antennae on customer’s roofs.
Microsoft and Sacred Wind will share installation costs and revenue from
the new service, Badal said.
Pricing has not been determined yet.
The technology will first be deployed in Grants, Milan, San Rafael,
Yatahey and areas within the Navajo Nation’s Church Rock Chapter.
Depending on success in that first-phase, which begins in late summer,
the partners will expand service to more Navajo communities.
Sacred Wind, which launched in 2006, is the only private
telecommunications firm in the country dedicated to providing services
solely on tribal lands.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director
1st-Mile Institute 505-603-5200
Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504,
rl@1st-mile.org www.1st-mile.org
---------------------------------------------------------------
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