[1st-mile-nm] Sacred Wind Communications completes 180-mile fiber project connecting Albuquerque and Gallup

[Richard Lowenberg]

Sacred Wind Communications completes 180-mile fiber project connecting 
Albuquerque and Gallup

By Chris Keller  – Managing Editor, Albuquerque Business First
Jan 6, 2021

https://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/news/2021/01/06/sacred-wind-communications-celebrates-completion.html

Residential and business internet customers from Albuquerque to Gallup 
and everywhere in between stand to benefit from a new fiber optic line 
that Sacred Wind Communications has completed.

About 10 years in the making, the completed project offers a level of 
redundancy previously unavailable. The Sacred Wind line doubles up an 
existing network between Albuquerque and Gallup, meaning a network 
outage along that line won't necessarily take residential, business and 
institutional customers offline.

The network also boasts speeds that are future proofed, said Sacred Wind 
Communications CEO John Badal. The network, which went online about two 
weeks ago, offers speeds up to 38 terabytes, but capacity can grow 
beyond that exponentially as technology demands increase.

"You could operate a dozen Sandia labs on that network and not run out 
of capacity," Badal said.

Wednesday, flanked online by business and legislative leaders, Badal and 
his team celebrated the end of the project and the beginning of what 
they hope will be a technological revolution all the way to the Arizona 
border.

New Mexico ranks above only Mississippi in terms of internet access, 
according to 2019 U.S. Census data. Nearly 18% of households lacked 
internet access of any kind. About 12.4% relied on a cellular connection 
to reach online resources.

Because of the state's size and rural geography, fast, reliable internet 
connectivity can make the difference for rural business opportunities, 
remote learning capabilities and access to virtual medical appointments.

As such, access to broadband in New Mexico has long been a legislative 
and commercial priority. However, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic 
exacerbated New Mexico's digital divide as the need for broadband access 
skyrocketed.

Brenda Curtright, the executive director of the Grants/Cibola County 
Chamber of Commerce, said in an interview that the project is 
significant.

"In our small little town, and for the towns on the outskirts, this is a 
big deal," said Curtright, who has led the Chamber of Commerce for a 
couple of months.

The opportunity to connect more of the state was not lost on Sacred Wind 
Communications. Badal said the Albuquerque to Gallup line takes a 
less-than-direct route that passes through tribal lands and smaller 
villages in Cibola and McKinley counties that lacked broadband access.

It fits in with the mission the Albuquerque-based telecommunications 
company has staked out: bringing telephone and internet service to the 
many thousands of unserved homes on Navajo lands.

In November, Sacred Wind brought internet connectivity to about 38 
locations in a remote development north of To’hajiilee, and installed 
infrastructure that could reach another 58 homes in the near future. 
Eight of the most remote of these homes have had no prior access to 
telecommunication services.

"We call ourselves a rural telco with a Fortune 500 attitude," Badal 
said. "We're thinking about the next level of technology and mimicking 
what a larger national company would do."

Wednesday's celebration was largely ceremonial. Badal said the network 
has been up and running, and customers have had access, for two weeks.

Work to identify the route and secure the right-of-way for the 
fiber-optic line began some 10 years ago. The project took shape once 
the route came together and the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2016 
announced a $13.8 million loan, Badal said.

The loan covered upgrades to existing broadband infrastructure, 
engineering, planning and other aspects associated with the project. But 
it didn't cover costs for environmental and archaeological studies, or 
to secure right-of-way easements.

Badal called that portion of the project the most difficult.

Sacred Wind worked with nearly a dozen jurisdictions, entities that 
ranged from federal, state, local and tribal governments to private 
landowners. In the end, the company buried about 90% of the fiber-optic 
lines along the 180-mile route. The remaining 10% uses existing pole 
infrastructure.

To complete its fiber-optic line between Albuquerque and Gallup, Sacred 
Wind Communications worked with nearly a dozen jurisdictions, entities 
that ranged from federal, state, local and tribal governments to private 
land owners. In the end, the company buried about 90% of the fiber-optic 
lines along the 180-mile route. The remaining 10% uses existing pole 
infrastructure.

Sacred Wind is a certified employee-owned company with a payroll of 
about 50 people. The bulk of its employees are Navajo. The company has 
more than 3,000 customers, and over the past 13 years has expanded its 
network so it can reach 10,000 homes.


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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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