New Mexico

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced more than $313 million in funding to connect rural residents, farmers and business owners in 18 states to reliable high-speed internet.

The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has recommended for award more than $276 million to 44 Tribal entities to expand high-speed Internet access and adoption. The funding from the nearly $3 billion Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program is part of the Biden-Harris Administration's Internet for All Initiative.

The New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion (OBAE) announced it has awarded more than $15 million in grants to entities through the state’s Connect New Mexico Fund to go toward deploying broadband infrastructure. The eight grants were awarded to Resound Networks, an internet service provider based in Pampa, Texas, and the Pueblos of Tesuque and Laguna. The newly awarded grants total $15,440,719. The awards will lead to broadband infrastructure that will connect more than 4,600 homes, businesses, farms and other locations in unserved and underserved areas.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau announced that certain Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) census block groups (CBG) are now eligible for other funding programs.

States are itching for action on broadband access. But as they wait for Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment money to flow—and policy changes under Trump—New Mexico wants to take matters into its own hands. New Mexico’s broadband office requested $70 million in state funds to help connect 95,000 locations with satellite broadband in the next two years.

In 2023, AT&T announced a 50/50 joint venture with the investment firm BlackRock to form an open-access fiber network company called Gigapower, with AT&T Fiber as the anchor tenant. The Communications Workers of America (CWA), which represents the majority of AT&T’s frontline workforce, has closely tracked the Gigapower build-out in several markets. This report is the first in a series of market spotlights looking at Gigapower’s deployments nationwide, and finds the following:

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved and recommended for award an application from New Mexico, allowing the state to request access to more than $8 million to implement its Digital Equity Plan. This funding comes from the $1.44 billion State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program, one of three Digital Equity Act grant programs created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.  The state will use the funding to implement key digital equity initiatives.

New Mexico: $8,673,975

In July 2024, the New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion (OBAE) released its Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program Initial Proposal Volume II.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development Under Secretary Dr. Basil Gooden announced nearly $173 million in funding to connect rural residents, farmers and business owners in the Dakotas and eight other states to reliable high-speed internet. Projects are being financed by the fifth round of the ReConnect Program.