(CNN) -- Step into any major urban center across Africa and you'll have no problem accessing your favorite websites, catching the latest news online or sending your friends an e-mail. Step outside the city, however, and you'll soon have to say goodbye to the world (wide web). Read this: Africa's new skyscraper cities Take for example Limpopo, a rural province in the northern part of South Africa, one of the country's poorest regions. "There is just no connectivity whatsoever," says Mahlo Mokgalong, a professor at the University of Limpopo, located outside the city of Polokwane. "From the area where I am," explains Mokgalong, "the nearest Internet cafÃ© will be 30 kilometers (away) -- there are even some people who travel 50 kilometers or so to get to the nearest Internet facility."
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Microsoft trialing TV 'white spaces' to bring broadband to rural Africa
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White spaces refers to unused frequencies in broadcast TV spectrum
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The company has already launched trials in Kenya and Tanzania
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Microsoft plans to roll out the technology to several other African countries
Microsoft
Microsoft
Consultations over white space schemes in other countries have raised concerns that the technology could interfere with television broadcasts or services using similar frequencies, but @placeholder believes that will not be a problem.