Microsoft, Veterans Affairs Partner on Rural Broadband

The million-plus veterans who live in rural America without broadband at home are the target of a new program. Microsoft and its partners will work with the Department of Veteran Affairs to provide “capital, technology expertise and training resources” to bring broadband access to underserved rural communities with veterans in need. Microsoft has devoted considerable attention to rural broadband and the new program joins at least two other ongoing Microsoft rural broadband programs. Veterans in target communities are “facing higher rates of unemployment, longer drives to reach the nearest clinics and medical centers and lower levels of educational attainment compared to their urban counterparts,” said Microsoft Head of Technology and Corporate Responsibility Shelley McKinley. “Connectivity has the potential to improve this reality.”