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

Tue Dec 25 11:43:52 PST 2018

The Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce is the one that made the remark about slow
adopters. This is a necessary frame for them.

Chambers of commerce are notoriously beholden to the largest members -
which are often firms like Comcast and CenturyLink in the case here. The
Chamber has to say something that will not make its members look bad  so he
blames poor access in the state on the people of the state rather than the
big corporations that put food on this table. No shock there - this is how
the game is played.

Organizations - like chambers of commerce - that are corrupted by Comcast
and CenturyLink money are extremely unlikely to support real solutions that
reduce the monopoly power of the big chamber members ... even if that
monopoly power is harming the vast majority of chamber members. Again...
this is just how the game is played.

Christopher Mitchell
Director, Community Broadband Networks
Institute for Local Self-Reliance

MuniNetworks.org <http://www.muninetworks.org/>
@communitynets
612-545-5185

On Tue, Dec 25, 2018 at 1:32 PM Doug Orr <doug.orr at gmail.com> wrote:

> Slow adopters??? That's not a likely reason why infrastructure
> improvements and distribution are lacking.
>
> On Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 10:04 AM Richard Lowenberg <rl at 1st-mile.org> wrote:
>
>> 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.
>>
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>> 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
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>> _______________________________________________
>> 1st-mile-nm mailing list
>> 1st-mile-nm at mailman.dcn.org
>> http://www2.dcn.org/mailman/listinfo/1st-mile-nm
>>
> _______________________________________________
> 1st-mile-nm mailing list
> 1st-mile-nm at mailman.dcn.org
> http://www2.dcn.org/mailman/listinfo/1st-mile-nm
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/1st-mile-nm/attachments/20181225/9541ff8a/attachment.html>