[1st-mile-nm] Internet Expanded for San Ildefonso Pueblo in New Mexico

[Richard Lowenberg]

I'd like to know more about this story, as I live next to the Pueblo,
and have followed its (lack of) involvement with prior USDA funded 
wireless networking opportunities and restricting access to right of 
ways for the ARRA funded open access REDI-Net fiber project.   
Additional new information would be appreciated.
RL

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Internet Expanded for San Ildefonso Pueblo in New Mexico

NMSurf will install a new 40-foot-tall wireless facility that will 
provide 1 gigabit service to the pueblo’s administrative offices and 50 
Mbps to all residences within sight of the utility pole.

BY TEYA VITU, THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN / JULY 3, 2019
https://www.govtech.com/network/Internet-Expanded-for-the-San-Ildefonso-Pueblo-in-New-Mexico.html

(TNS) — Internet service at the San Ildefonso Pueblo, which is a census 
designated area in New Mexico, will move into the modern day in the 
coming weeks. NMSurf, a provider based in Santa Fe, N.M., will install a 
new 40-foot-tall wireless facility that will provide 100 megabits per 
second service — or 1 gigabit — to the pueblo’s administrative offices 
and 50 Mbps to all residences within sight of the utility pole.

This $40,000 project replaces scattershot Internet service at San 
Ildefonso, where the administrative office operates on less than 2 Mbps 
through copper wire and other sections of the pueblo vary from 25 Mbps 
down to no Internet service, said Terry Aguilar, project manager for San 
Ildefonso infrastructure projects and a former pueblo governor.

San Ildefonso Pueblo is located on 4.2 square miles between Pojoaque and 
Los Alamos, N.M., with 177 tribal households and 450 non-tribal 
households, Aguilar said, but the service will extend beyond the pueblo 
boundaries as far as the signal reaches.

“There is so much possibility with this service,” San Ildefonso Gov. 
Terry Martinez said. “Pueblo administration will be a lot more efficient 
working with banks and the federal government. Sometimes now I wait for 
a minute for basic information to download.”

Martinez said better Internet service is also coming to the pueblo’s 
senior center, library, learning center and anyone within sight of 
NMSurf’s pole. NMSurf will be the first provider transmitting from the 
pueblo-owned utility pole. Aguilar said at a later date other Internet 
service providers will be invited to use the wireless facility and 
cellular phone service may also be added.

NMSurf President Albert Catanach believes this new wireless facility 
takes a small bite out the U.S. Census Bureau’s ranking New Mexico at 
No. 48 among the least connected states for broadband.

“At least 50 percent of the pueblo is underserved,” Catanach said. 
“Underserved is less than 25 Mbps.”

NMSurf already serves the other 50 percent of the San Ildefonso Pueblo.

The groundbreaking for the wireless tower was June 25 with service 
expected to be operational sometime in the second half of July.



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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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