Microsoft chose Limpopo, one of South Africa’s poorest, most unplugged rural areas, for its latest trial of a white spaces technology initiative employing the unused channels in the broadcast TV spectrum to bring high-speed broadband to under-served communities, according to a CNN report.

The 12-month pilot project, expected to be operational in October, will use the relatively new technology and solar-powered base stations to get five secondary schools in the province online located within 10 kilometers of the University of Limpopo, the project’s hub located outside the city of Polokwane.

Parts of Limpopo are so remote, “the nearest Internet café will be 30 kilometers (away) – there are even some people who travel 50 kilometers or so to get to the nearest Internet facility,” said university professor Mahlo Mokgalong.

TV white spaces are the unused frequencies lying idle following the migration of TV broadcast from analogue to digital. Previously, these were kept clear to avoid interference with neighboring channels.

The low-signal frequencies, from around 400-800 megahertz, can penetrate walls and other obstacles more easily than traditional broadband technologies. They can also transfer data traveling longer distances before they need to be reboosted, up to 10 kilometers, which means that fewer towers or base stations are needed to cover wider aresa.

All potential users need is a device with Wi-Fi capability, such as a mobile phone, a PC or a tablet, that will connect to a Wi-Fi access point that, in turn, is connected to a white space base station.

Microsoft has been researching TV white spaces for 12 years and deployed the technology in locations from the U.S. and Europe to emerging markets in Southeast Asia.

It first brought white spaces to Africa in February when it launched a trial delivering broadband access to remote villages in Kenya’s Rift Valley. A second pilot followed in an urban environment in May, bringing wireless broadband access to students at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, before the launch of the third trial in South Africa.

But it’s Africa, a continent beset by connectivity and infrastructure challenges, where the company sees the biggest potential, the report said.

Cost and distance are two reasons why Africa is ideal for the deployment of white spaces, said Fernando de Sousa, general manager of Microsoft’s Africa initiatives.

“The ability to cover ground with the least amount of effort…” de Sousa said. “…With one tower, with one broadcast station, if you go 10 kilometers either direction you’re creating … a very big patch of land which we’re essentially covering with one antenna.”

This brings infrastructure costs down significantly, de Sousa said, something that is key to speeding up Internet adoption in Africa and helping its economic development.

“We need to do an innovative approach to get people online,” he said. “We cannot follow traditional methods where perhaps the coverage increases by 1,000 yards every week or so – we have to go much faster than that … because of the very rapid growth of Africa’s workforce and the desperate need to get skills into the population.”

In March, Google launched a similar pilot project bringing wireless broadband to 10 schools in Cape Town, South Africa, the report said.

Microsoft plans to use its pilots, part of its 4Afrika Initiative, to convince governments to make needed legal and regulatory changes that would allow for the technology to be deployed across the continent. But getting the many regulatory bodies on board could be a significant challenge.

There are concerns that the technology could interfere with TV broadcasts or services using similar frequencies. Microsoft believes that will not be a problem.

“We’ve not only improved the technology but also proved that there is no interference,” de Sousa said.

Mark Graham, director of research at the University of Oxford’s Internet Institute, said he welcomes the initiative to provide rural African schools with Internet access but cautions that many schools have other needs.

“Some schools might not have electricity, toilets, teachers, textbooks,” he said. “Connecting people is a prerequisite for some of the things you might want to happen – but the problem is when people think that’s enough.”

Microsoft is in discussions with governments, multilateral organizations and local service providers about rolling out white spaces in about 10 African countries.

“We’re now getting into the stage where the pilot stages are over and we’re starting to deploy commercially viable deployments,” De Sousa said.

In Limpopo, Mokgalong said students can’t wait for the project to begin.

“There is excitement, everyone is eagerly waiting to see how this is going to happen,” he said.

“If the pilot works then I’m sure we will increase (the number of schools),” Mokgalong said. “We’re looking at education for a start and I think later health will follow, business will follow – everyone is looking to participate in in this.”