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Tribes, Cooperatives, and Counties Nab $1.4 Million In New Mexico Grants
The New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion (OBAE) has awarded $1.4 million in grants to 15 counties, tribal communities, cooperatives, and municipalities for planning, engineering and grant writing to expand broadband access in long-underserved communities.
The funding not only allows these communities to begin analyzing their local connectivity needs in more detail, it potentially opens the door to helping them apply for more than $675 million in BEAD grants the state of New Mexico is poised to receive courtesy of 2021 infrastructure legislation.
The New Mexico Grant Writing, Engineering and Planning Program (GWEP) awards must be used for grant writing, engineering and planning for broadband expansion projects and the development of infrastructure projects. Traditional private ISPs were not eligible.
The first round of awards were announced in June, with a second batch announced in July.
Round one awardees included $100,000 grants to the Village of Pecos, Valencia County, Pueblo of Isleta, Pueblo of San Ildefonso, Pueblo of Laguna, Pueblo of Jemez, and Otero County, and a $90,000 grant to Luna County.
Round two awardees included $100,000 grants to Santa Fe County, the City of Raton, the Pueblo of Picuris, the Jemez Mountains Electric Co-op, and Redi-Net, as well as a $72,635 grant to Colfax County and a $72,500 grant to Penasco Valley Telephone Co-op.
Grant winners are expected to have submitted their proposals no later than June 30, 2025. The awards will be used to either develop new broadband projects, or in the case of Tribal communities – like the Pueblo of Laguna – be used to plan out expansions of existing wireless and fiber networks with the potential assistance of additional looming federal funding.
“This is a big step forward to helping unserved regions of our state attain high-speed internet,” OBAE acting director Drew Lovelace said in a prepared statement.
Federal and state data (which likely underestimates the scope of the problem) reveal that 16 percent of New Mexico’s 873,797 serviceable locations are either unserved or underserved, with 70,609 (8 percent) completely unserved and an additional 72,384 (8 percent) underserved. The state of New Mexico is 39th in BroadbandNow’s coverage, speed, and availability rankings.
Money is still available in New Mexico’s GWEP program, and OBAE is urging tribal governments, local governments, rural telephone cooperatives and rural electric cooperatives to submit applications for the GWEP assistance grants.
In late July, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced that the state had received final approval for its plans to receive and distribute $675 million in BEAD grants the state expects to receive sometime in 2025.
“The Biden-Harris administration’s $675 million investment in New Mexico will help transform our digital infrastructure,” Grisham said. “This funding empowers New Mexico to bridge the digital divide and create equal opportunities across the state, especially for our rural and tribal communities.”
Inline image of Pueblo of Jemez Visitor Center courtesy of Jay Peeples, Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic