[1st-mile-nm] Need is Great for Speedy Internet Service in CDEC Area

[Richard Lowenberg]

Continental Divide Electric Cooperative
Nov. 2014
 
http://www.nmelectric.coop/bkpgs/1411/CDEC.pdf 
 
Need is Great for Speedy Internet Service in Area
 
Reliable, exceptionally fast Internet is greatly needed and desired in Continental Divide Electric’s service area.  
 
More than 80 percent of the nearly 1,600 co-op members who responded to CDEC’s recent survey expressed some level of interest in receiving such a service. And the vast majority of these members already receive access to Internet at home.   Many of those who don’t currently access it, cite lack of sufficient access in west-central New Mexico and its cost as factors that prohibit them from being connected to the digital age from the comfort of their rural, service-area homes.
 
CDEC’s survey was intended to determine the market need and whether the co-op should continue its ongoing effort to find a way to bridge the broadband divide to improve the quality of life for those the co-op serves. CDEC’s effort has been underway since 2012 and will likely continue into 2015, working with potential Internet providers, grant writers, state and local government officials, and industry experts.
 
“There is still a need to position ourselves to apply for federal money expected to be made available in the coming years for build-out of broadband infrastructure, namely fiber optics, in rural areas,” CDEC General Manager Robert E. Castillo, P.E., said.
 
“It’s not going to happen as fast as many would like it to; it’s going to be a longer-term process, unless we get a break and are able to make it happen quicker,” Castillo said.
 
CDEC had hoped that “break” would occur this year, but the Federal Communications Commission only allocated $100 million in grant money to support a pilot program to build rural broadband, making it highly unlikely any one applicant would be awarded the sizeable amount needed to build in high-cost and extremely high-cost areas of the country.
 
CDEC’s service territory falls into these categories, as they relate to the co-op, because of the lack of communication infrastructure already in place. On the bright side, the co-op already has miles and miles of utility poles in the ground that could potentially serves as anchors for equipment needed to get high-speed Internet to homes throughout the service area.
 
“I want to thank everyone who took the time to complete the survey. The results certainly demonstrate the current need and will be used to help Continental Divide Electric make its case, should the right opportunity present itself for the co-op to apply for future funding,” Castillo said.

 
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Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director
1st-Mile Institute          www.1st-mile.org  
P. O.  Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM    87504
505-603-5200                 rl at 1st-mile.org
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