Satya Nadella demonstrates Microsoft's "White-Fi" connectivity project

Microsoft  CEO Satya Nadella showcased one of the company's ongoing projects yesterday, a program that uses "White-Fi" to connect users to the internet across continents. Nadella used the system to talk to a school in Andhra Pradesh, from a village in Kenya. 

White-Fi uses the under-utilised bands in the TV broadcasting spectrum (200-600 MHz) to transmit a wireless signal and, in Nanyuki village in Kenya, it's powered by solar energy. Mawingu Networks provides the town with internet access and, as the company's founder and chief technical officer Malcom Brew says, "The Internet is the great leveler. Particularly as you connect people who thought they’d never get it. The Internet changes how you can run yourself as a community." 

Satya Nadella uses Microsoft's White Space technology to Skype from a school in Kenya to a school in Andhra Pradesh in India.

The project is a pilot program to showcase Microsoft's vision of making India and Kenya, among other countries, digitally-empowered economies by using low-cost and effective technologies to extend broadband services in rural areas. You can read ore about Microsoft's plans here.