[1st-mile-nm] New Fiber Provision in Santa Fe

[Richard Lowenberg]

Santa Fe’s Fastest New Internet Connection

New fiber optic cable increases internet speeds and reliability for 
businesses on Cerrillos Road

By Leah Cantor
(See the article online to view photos)

https://www.sfreporter.com/news/2019/04/04/santa-fes-fastest-new-internet-connection

Immediate loading times. Unlimited bandwidth and streaming capacity. 
Blitz-speed uploads. Unprecedented reliability of connection. All of 
these features and more are the perks of connecting to the internet 
through fiber optic cables, something that is becoming more and more 
available to businesses and residents in Santa Fe.

"Fiber is the future of the internet," says Alisha Catanach, who works 
in marketing and sales for NMSurf. On Monday, the local company 
announced that they have completed installation of a cable that runs 
from the intersection of Fourth Street and Cerrillos Road down Cerrillos 
to Siler Road, then to Agua Fría Street. The cable will make fiber 
broadband access available to over 350 businesses.

Two recently built upscale residential developments, Casas de San Juan 
and Los Caminitos, both located north of Santa Fe, are the only 
residential neighborhoods in Santa Fe where connection through fiber 
optic networks available to all homeowners. Cyber Mesa, the local 
company that installed the networks, says that they are the first of 
their kind in the city.

Tom Simon of Westgate properties says that copper phone lines, which are 
the traditional method for connecting residences to the internet, are 
limited in capacity for speed, downloads and uploads. Fiber optic cables 
eliminate these restrictions.

Simon tells SFR the fiber optic cables were relatively easy to install 
for the neighborhoods because the developers had already approved the 
installation of new natural gas lines, and they were able to 
simultaneously lay down fiber optic cables along the same lines. He says 
that fiber optic access raises property values and is attractive to new 
homeowners.

Some businesses in Santa Fe also have access to fiber optic networks in 
the downtown Railyard district, where Cyber Mesa installed a 2-mile 
section of fiber optic cable to improve the speed, price and 
availability of internet access in the area. The city awarded the 
company $1 million to complete the project in 2015.

Local access to fiber optic cable connection is about to expand even 
further. In July, NMSurf will begin phase two of the fiber cable 
installation project on Cerrillos, extending the cable to the 
intersection with Airport Road. The company estimates that installing 
the extension will take about two months and will make fiber available 
to at least 500 additional businesses.

This is exciting news for businesses in Santa Fe, where internet has 
been notoriously unreliable in the past. In 2015, news outlets reported 
that service in the city was half the speed available in Albuquerque and 
other surrounding communities, though costs to customers were the same. 
But with local businesses like Cyber Mesa and NMSurf vying with national 
providers to take the lead on fiber, cutting-edge technologies are 
becoming more and more accessible.

"For years, progress stalled due to monopoly over services," says Jane 
Hill of Cyber Mesa. "That's just not the case anymore, which is a good 
thing for Santa Fe."


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