By Russ Steele

Smith was the Keynote speaker at Senator Steve Daines Montana High Tech Summit on October 9th.  Smith covers the future of jobs and the role of technology and education in a changing job market. One of the critical aspects of this transition is access to broadband communications, “a critical necessity of life” according to Smith, an element that is missing in the lives of 2.4 million rural citizens in the US.  According to Smith, President Trump is committed to reducing this number by 80% over the next five years with a $50 Billion dollar investment.  Using Microsoft’s Rural Airband technology, the cost could be reduced from $60 Billion to $12 Billion, said Smith.  AirBand is Microsoft’s  TV Whitespace initiative. Microsoft wants to reduce the cost of an AirBand router to $200.00. More at this YouTube video starting at 2:08