Microsoft strikes next deal to extend broadband in 3 states

COLUMBUS (AP) — Microsoft Corp. and an Ohio-based provider of telecommunications services announced an agreement Tuesday to extend broadband internet access to underserved rural areas of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois over the next three years.

The deal between Microsoft and Lima-based Watch Communications aims to make reliable high-speed internet available to another 4 million people throughout the region. Some 815,000 of those live in rural areas, including 288,000 of the roughly 1 million Ohioans who federal figures show are not currently using the internet at high speeds.

The project is part of Microsoft’s national Airband Initiative, which is seeking to fill regions unserved by high-speed internet across the country. Among its partnerships is a deal Microsoft struck last year with Canton-based Agile Networks to reach 110,000 unserved people in rural Ohio.

And Microsoft is not the only tech giant working to solve a connectivity problem in rural, often poor areas of the U.S. that has confounded policymakers for decades. Facebook, the social media powerhouse, launched a broadband initiative in neighboring West Virginia in March.

Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, who heads a new state office devoted to the state’s technology future, said he applauds any private-sector company that steps up to provide solutions. His office, InnovateOhio, recently issued a request for information seeking such ideas, he said.