Microsoft, Sacred Wind attack digital divide in rural NM
June 28, 2019
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.”