FARGO - The chief research and strategy officer of Microsoft Corp. sat in a conference room of the company's Fargo campus and talked about technology that could help business in rural states.

But Craig Mundie couldn't call, text or e-mail anyone with his own phone.

"I'm sitting here with my cell phone and it doesn't work here," Mundie said Monday, after speaking to a group of employees. "This has a Bluetooth radio, a WiFi radio and GSM radio, and I can't use it."

Mundie has spent 15 years leading Microsoft's campaign to improve wireless broadband capacity in the United States and around the world. For the last several years, he's been working with government regulators on the possibility of using the unused spectrum between television channels to deliver broadband access.

The so-called "white spaces proposition" could help rural states like North Dakota, where companies don't find it economical to build cell towers because of the small population.

"To me, the power of this white spaces is that if you want to build a community alternative, where you could at least have the equivalent of a cell phone walkie-talkie capability just to make local calls in Fargo, that would probably make a lot of people happy," Mundie said. "It at least creates an alternative."

Once the broadband problem is solved, Mundie expects people in rural areas to demand technology that will allow remote working capability. That means communication systems will have to be linked, he said.

"Today, in a simple sense, the closest form of a telepresence you have is your phone, or maybe a little Web cam, if you're lucky. None of these are very natural," Mundie said. "In your office, you have a computer and you have a phone, and they're not integrated.

"My belief is that the cost of these technologies can be driven down and novel ways of programming them from a software usage point of view will allow them to become more integrated," he said.

Mundie was in North Dakota to speak at a technology conference and visit the Fargo division, which handles software for businesses and other operations, including customer support, payroll and information technology. He cited his relationship with Doug Burgum, the former head of Microsoft's Fargo operation, and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.

"I think the two of them conspired to decide to ask me to come and talk (at the conference)," Mundie said. "And I wanted to visit the Microsoft Fargo campus, so it was sort of a 'twofer' at that point."