The C Spire Rural Broadband Consortium has been busy. From adding a new partner to the team, to completing TV White Space testing, we’ve made progress that you will want to know about. Here’s a look at what we’ve been up to over the last few months: 

Welcome, Telesat. 

Telesat, a privately held Canadian satellite operator, has joined the C Spire Rural Broadband Consortium, bringing their expertise to the business modeling phase of our project. We are particularly excited about their knowledge of LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellites and their research on LEO use cases, particularly as a backhaul option. Telesat has created powerful business case modeling tools, which they will be leveraging on behalf of the Consortium. Telesat’s expertise in this area is proving invaluable as the Consortium works to identify ways to reduce the cost of broadband to rural communities. Learn more. 

 TV White Space testing

We recently completed our TV White Space (TVWS) testing. While the Consortium did not connect a full market using TVWS, there were lessons learned, primarily that more work is needed in order to make TVWS more generally usable, including allowing higher power and better aligning the TVWS database with spectrum reality. Learn more.   

Note: Some of our work directly aligns with the FCC’s recent decision to propose updating TVWS rules.    

Develop your tech skills 

We’ve created a new Digital Skills webpage on the C Spire Rural Broadband Consortium website. Sponsored by both C Spire and Consortium partner Microsoft, this page provides children fun ways to learn or practice coding. For the more tech-savvy adults, we have provided courses that will help sharpen their technical skills. Most importantly, however, are the links that show an Internet newcomer how to use the internet safely. Learn more. 

Our first case study 

The Consortium’s first case study has been added to the C Spire Rural Broadband Consortium website. Consortium case studies are specific examples of how technology options and business models are matched to a particular rural environment. This first case study describes how broadband was provided to underserved scattered farmhouses using a third-party engagement model with an operator (C Spire) and a local steward (one of the farmhouse residents) to serve the remaining farmhouses in a cost-effective way for all parties. More case studies are in the works. We will update you as we look at different types of markets, different third parties and how to enable this type of partnership to deploy more easily. Learn more. 

Thanks 

We want to send a special thank you to our Consortium partners for their dedication to this project and to you, our supporters. We are excited for what the future holds and look forward to providing more updates along the way.  

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