Dozens gather to share high-speed connectivity needs

LAS CRUCES – Dozens of movers and shakers and everyday residents from throughout Southwest New Mexico gathered Friday, May 12 in Las Cruces with a key thought in mind: How can communities overcome many hurdles to bringing high-speed internet to all their residents, while also supporting people in accessing that new connectivity? 

Personnel with the New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion say they’ll use the input from Friday’s session and others throughout the state to form a blueprint that in turn will be used to issue grants via a large pool of federal funding – possibly up to $600 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – that could be headed to the state for high-speed upgrades.

Attendees hailed from a region covering Doña Ana, Catron, Socorro, Sierra, Grant, Luna, and Hidalgo Counties.

Here are five take-aways from the New Mexico Southwest Region 5 Broadband Meeting, hosted at the Doña Ana County Government Center, 845 N. Motel Blvd.

1. COVID-19 has boosted the urgency to solve connectivity gaps

Attendees agreed the COVID-19 pandemic exposed weaknesses in Southern New Mexico’s broadband infrastructure, by highlighting numerous connectivity gaps and high poverty that prevents many people from subscribing to services where they do exist. Several people said the pandemic raised the urgency of the need for solutions, given that work, school and health care and social interactions have shifted online more so than ever before. “It’s been identified as a basic need by community members,” said Maria Chaparro of the group Mamacitas Cibernéticas, working to boost high-speed internet access and know-how in southern Doña Ana County. She emphasized, too, that residents whose primary language is Spanish will need information and cyber training in their preferred language.

2. Students need the internet more than ever before

Tamara Rosenberg, business advisor for the Small Business Development Center at Western New Mexico University, works from the same building in Deming shared by the city’s early college high school. Friday, she relayed the story of a student who attends the school. He’s from Palomas, Mexico, and had intermittent and slow internet during the pandemic – and so couldn’t routinely join Zoom-based classes and submit homework assignments. His GPA dropped to a 0.28 during his ninth-grade year, despite having straight A’s in middle school. The student has rebounded since classes resumed in-person and, as a junior, he has earned a 1440 on his SAT, placing him in the top 5 percent of scorers. Despite the achievement, his overall GPA was negatively impacted by his inability to access high-speed internet. 

“His story illustrates the inequity of broadband access across the southern end of New Mexico and the absolute necessity of providing high-speed internet to support our high school students,” writes Deming Early College High School Principal Bryan Simpson in a letter presented Friday.

3. High-speed infrastructure sometimes passes directly by homes, without people being able to connect to it

La Mesa resident Manuel Garcia expressed concerns during the meeting that a high-speed fiber optic line – considered the gold standard for internet connectivity – runs directly by his home near N.M. Hwy. 28. But he has no way to tap into it because the company that owns it doesn’t offer service in the community. Other internet options are slow or expensive or both. “My frustration is – it’s only 100 yards from my house,” he said during the session. State officials responded, saying sometimes fiber optic infrastructure is meant to route data between two distant points, and companies aren’t intending to serve smaller communities along its path. Other times, they said, there’s a gap in connecting the lines to individual homes – the so-called “last mile” of infrastructure.

4. Broadband advocates are collaborating across state lines

Advocates in New Mexico’s Doña Ana County and far West Texas’ El Paso County have joined to form Borderplex Connect, a nonprofit advocating for improved high-speed internet across the region. The group carried out an internet needs survey of 3,000 residents in Doña Ana County, with help from local promotoras, during the pandemic. Residents can still take the survey at www.DonaAnaBroadband.com. 

The nonprofit also supported Comcast Xfinity’s application for $17 million from the state to extend fiber-optic-to-the-home connectivity to 12,000 households in Doña Ana County. The cable TV/internet provider will pitch in $17 million of its own funds, for a total $34 million project. In addition, the Borderplex Connect has been awarded $300,000 in federal funds for promoting awareness across Doña Ana, Luna and El Paso Counties about a federal subsidy, known as the Affordable Connectivity Program, that provides $30 per month to help pay families’ internet bills.

5. New Mexico residents can give input through June 1

For anyone not able to attend Friday, state officials will continue to gather input about internet needs through upcoming virtual sessions, in-person meetings, and a statewide meeting May 24 that will include federal administrators and other key decision-makers. Also, residents through June 1 can fill out one of six surveys about internet needs: www.connect.nm.gov. The feedback funnels into a statewide blueprint that will be the basis for doling out funding to high-speed internet projects.

“This is part of the information we’re looking to gather to make sure that we are getting the right information to provide into our plan,” said Drew Lovelace, operations manager for the state Office of Broadband Access and Expansion. “Feel free to take the one that pertains to you. Or, if you’d like to take multiple, you can.”