[1st-mile-nm] US Feds to increase costs for access to Federal Land for broadband

[Akkana Peck]

A web search found:
https://www.doit.state.nm.us/broadband/

They have a map of availability of various types of broadband,
which is about as reliable as such maps usually are -- who knew
that most of the lower Bandelier back country had fiber? -- and
a page on the Technical Assistance Program to help qualified
government entities who are seeking to deploy or expand broadband
infrastructure, with a soft application date of 17 October 2021
for proposals. I wonder how many proposals they actually got.

They also have a link to a speed test that implies that they'll
actually collect speeds and make them part of their map.
So I encourage everyone to go there,
https://www.doit.state.nm.us/broadband/speedtest.shtml
even if you already know your connection speed, and especially if
you have a slow link and want to make sure they include that in
their data.

        ...Akkana

Nan Rubin writes:
> At the beginning of this year, the legislative session approved a
> multi-million dollar allocation for a centralized broadband office, to
> coordinate all these disparate interests and getting broadband deployed,
> coordinating grant applications to ensure that there won't be a lot of
> competition among municipalities, and so we know who's applying for what,
> and to prioritize where services need to go and direct resources in two
> into those areas. That was nearly a year ago. Do we know if this office has
> been set up, and has a broadband czar been named to the state of New
> Mexico? I haven't seen anything about it down here in Las Cruces, no news
> whether this has been put in place or whatever. So please tell us Richard,
> do you know if this is going on so we can make our positions known? Thanks
> much! When I saw that the money had been allocated by the state to set up
> the broadband coordinating office, I was hoping it would get established
> pretty quickly. Here it is a year later and no news. Maybe we need to keep
> making noise to make sure that this gets done as soon as possible?... 0
> best to everyone for the new year! Nan Ruben