Microsoft’s Airband initiative that aims to bridge the digital divide by providing accessible internet is now taking a leap forward. Microsoft has announced its partnership with Starlink-like satellite internet service providing company named Starlink.
Microsoft, under the new partnership, aims to deliver internet access to 10 million people around the globe, including 5 million across Africa. The collaboration is part of the company’s Airband initiative which was launched in 2017. It was launched with an aim to improve digital connectivity in rural areas across US, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. Microsoft under the Airband initiative already has high-speed internet across more than 51 million people globally.
It partners with internet service providers, governments, public policy groups, and government to deploy affordable internet in these areas. This is the first time that Microsoft’s Airband initiative has an involvement of a satellite internet service company.
” Viasat, a global communications company, is the first satellite partner to work with Microsoft’s Airband Initiative, and together they will deepen Airband’s work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States, as well as prioritize expanding the program to Egypt, Senegal and Angola to deliver much-needed internet connection, often for the first time,” reads the blog post announcing the partnership.
The two companies together will combine expertise and assets to help enable telehealth, distance learning and education, precision agriculture, clean power, and other services to reach new areas through satellite internet.
“We believe access to the internet is a fundamental right and that digital skills create and enable economic prosperity for people, businesses and governments. Through our Airband Initiative we will extend high-speed internet access to 100 million people on the continent of Africa and to a quarter of a billion people living in unserved and underserved areas across the world by 2025,” said Teresa Hutson, Microsoft’s vice president of Technology and Corporate Responsibility.\
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