>> This is a small rural area,
somewhere around 3,000
full-time residents.
When I moved to the local area,
the only Internet was satellite,
and satellite just didn't work.
>> We were using
weird little repeaters from
signals that were barely
moving and Beth said,
"I think I can get fiber optics
and I think I can beam
it to your silo."
>> I purchased two antennas and
radios I went along with that,
people start saying
you've got Internet,
how do I get that?
>> Here at the Hub we
have a retail store.
Internet is a huge boon
to our existence.
The locals who need a place to shop,
who have no access to local food
they can get local vegetables,
locally made products that they
wouldn't have access to otherwise.
We communicate through
a platform with a lot
of the local farmers
that's all internet-based.
>> Our customers are ordering on
an online market forum
basically a grocery list.
This is our grocery store,
you get to pick as many of
these things if
you want, all internet-based.
>> Currently I'm providing
internet for 250 people.
The problem with
the current technology
is that it needs to be line of sight.
If somebody is back behind a bunch of
trees or behind a mountain,
it just doesn't work.
In order to grow,
we need some new technology
called TV White Space.
It uses the old TV frequencies and
rebroadcasts them for Internet.
The support from Microsoft
has been extremely helpful,
I never would've
thought about expanding
into TV white space without
the support from Microsoft.
From a policy level,
we need more bandwidth so I can
provide better service and
push it out to more people.
>> I think we're at
ground-zero right now,
with the Air Band initiative,
we can take our farm
to the next level.
>> It's all about solving problems.
It's a lot of fun to
see people's eyes light
up for the first time that they
haven't had service before,
it's nice to be able to do that.
