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Maine Pilot Project Partners with Microsoft to Increase Rural Access to Broadband Internet

Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith speaks in Washington, Tuesday, July 11, 2017, about Microsoft's project to bring broadband internet access to rural parts of the U.S.
AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith speaks in Washington, Tuesday, July 11, 2017, about Microsoft's project to bring broadband internet access to rural parts of the U.S.

The Microsoft Corporation is launching a new effort to improve internet access to rural households, and Maine will benefit with a pilot project that taps into unused television frequencies, known as white space, to beam internet service to those last-mile areas. Mark Oulette, president of Machias-based Axiom, says the work will build on his company’s recent effort to get that kind of service to some 40 households on the Passamaquoddy reservation at Indian Township.

He says some 20,000 rural Maine households lack internet service.

“And many more are underserved,” Oulette says. “So we see a big opportunity to partner with Microsoft in rural environments across Maine to give people a better signal using TV white space and most likely other kinds of wireless technology.”

Microsoft says it will give financial and technical assistance to twelve projects in the country that aim to improve internet service in remote areas.

A Columbia University graduate, Fred began his journalism career as a print reporter in Vermont, then came to Maine Public in 2001 as its political reporter, as well as serving as a host for a variety of Maine Public Radio and Maine Public Television programs. Fred later went on to become news director for New England Public Radio in Western Massachusetts and worked as a freelancer for National Public Radio and a number of regional public radio stations, including WBUR in Boston and NHPR in New Hampshire.