[1st-mile-nm] Census-NM-Broadband-Report

[Richard Lowenberg]

Census: N.M. struggling for a good connection

By Teya Vitu | tvitu at sfnewmexican.com  Dec 24, 2018

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/census-n-m-struggling-for-a-good-connection/article_7ef18278-008e-5396-8250-8c8c52847c4f.html

New U.S. Census Bureau data released earlier this month says New Mexico 
is among the least connected states to broadband in the nation.

New Mexico ranks No. 48, just ahead of Arkansas and Mississippi and one 
notch below West Virginia, with percentage of households with broadband 
Internet subscriptions in 2016.

The Census determined 73.7 percent of New Mexico household had broadband 
connections; the U.S. average was 81.4 percent. Washington state led the 
nation at 87.4 percent.

“Low broadband internet subscription rates were found in many counties 
in the upper Plains, the Southwest and South,” the Census wrote in its 
report.

The highspeedinternet.com website determined 91 percent of New Mexicans 
can get broadband internet. The broadbandnow.com website has 81 percent 
of New Mexico covered by broadband.

The gap between broadband availability and customer subscriptions 
reflects other Census findings that singled out Deming and Gallup among 
the half-dozen or so U.S. micropolitan areas (fewer than 50,000 
residents) with the lowest income and highest poverty, respectively.

New Mexico’s issues with poverty and low income are evident throughout 
the state. Only Los Alamos County has less than 10 percent poverty. 
Otherwise, the state falls alongside Arizona, South Carolina and 
Delaware as the only states with no counties with less than 10 percent 
poverty.

On the broadband front, only Bernalillo, Sandoval, Santa Fe and Eddy 
counties have 75 to 85 percent of households with broadband 
subscriptions. Counties with broadband rates below 55 percent include 
Doña Ana, Socorro, Cibola, McKinley, Rio Arriba, Guadalupe, San Miguel, 
Mora and Harding — most with poverty rates between 26 and 37 percent.

“Generally, we are slow adapters,” said Simon Brackley, CEO of the Santa 
Fe Chamber of Commerce, whose economic development committee focuses on 
broadband connectivity. “It takes us a little longer to catch up. There 
is increased commitment by the state to increase Internet speed. I think 
some people who live in rural areas are not interested in broadband.”

However, the Albuquerque-based child advocacy organization New Mexico 
Voices for Children does not believe low incomes and poverty are the 
reason for New Mexico’s low broadband subscription rate.

“That’s an excuse, not a reason,” said James Jimenez, the group’s 
executive director. “One thing we have seen around the state, even in 
low-income communities, a lot of people still have a phone (despite the 
cost). Companies find a way of providing service people can afford.”

Jimenez said Voices is seeking greater state investment in bringing 
broadband to rural areas, equating broadband as infrastructure that is 
no different from highways — items a community may not be able to do 
alone.

“I would say there is a great opportunity with the state surplus to use 
those resources to invest in broadband infrastructure for rural 
communities,” Jimenez said. “We have a hollowing out of rural 
communities. One of the reasons for that is the lack of economic 
opportunities. One of the things the state can and should do is provide 
basic infrastructure.”

CenturyLink, among the largest Internet providers in New Mexico, did not 
talk specifics in the Census Bureau report but said the company “is on 
track to have enabled more than 15,000 locations in FCC-designated, 
high-cost census blocks in New Mexico by the end of this year,” 
referring to where the cost of service is higher than can be supported a 
user rates alone.

Earlier this month, Gov.-elect Michelle Lujan Grisham, an outgoing 
member of the U.S. House of Representatives, lauded the inclusion in the 
Farm Bill of $500 million for a Community Connects Program, a broadband 
grant program to support construction of broadband infrastructure in 
communities private companies may not deem economically viable.

Lujan Grisham in a statement the program will help rural areas of New 
Mexico.

“Expanding broadband access will grow New Mexico’s economy, create jobs, 
boost wages, improve health outcomes, support small business growth, 
help our students learn, increase crop yields, and so much more,” she 
said.



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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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