Broadband Network to Connect Underserved in Sierra County, N.M.

Source: GovTech Published: November 16th, 2020

(TNS) — Sacred Wind Communications is using a $6.1 million federal grant to extend broadband coverage in rural Sierra County through a new partnership with Sierra Electric Cooperative.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded $20 million in grants in late October to four New Mexico telecom companies to build out high-speed Internet in underserved rural areas. The grants will connect up some 1,400 homes, businesses and public buildings in seven rural counties, according to New Mexico's congressional delegation, which pushed for the funding through the USDA's Reconnect Program.

In Sierra County, the grant will allow Sacred Wind to deploy a new, 271-mile fiber-optic network to directly connect about 1,600 people who reside in zones where 75% of residents report lack of access to high-speed broadband. Sacred Wind will piggy back off Sierra Electric infrastructure, said Sacred Wind CEO John Badal.

"The co-op reached out to us to partner with them on providing broadband to their customers because they don't have the in-house expertise to do it," Badal told the Journal. "We're doing the final preparation work now and staking out the exact routes to run fiber to homes. The co-op is helping us identify each pole that will have fiber attached to it."

Construction will begin in a few weeks and conclude by year-end 2021.

"Customers will start receiving service as we finish segments," Badal said. "We'll light them up as we go."

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Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash