Internet Money | Internet Upgrade Headed To Northern New Mexico

Rural areas such as Northern New Mexico usually fall into the have-not category.

But not for long.

On Monday, federal, state and local officials gathered in Española to mark the start of a $10.6 million project paid for by federal stimulus dollars meant to bring faster Internet connections to thousands of Northern New Mexicans.

The project, called Redi Net, will expand high-speed Internet to more than 120 government institutions, schools and hospitals in Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Rio Arriba counties, as well as in several pueblos and the city of Española, thanks to the laying of 150 miles of fiber optics, officials said. Fiber optics are the infrastructure required to move information quickly on the Internet.

While that is occurring, thousands of homeowners in Taos, Colfax and Rio Arriba counties soon could have high-speed Internet because of an additional $60 million in federal funds that Kit Carson Electric Cooperative will use to offer faster Internet to its customers, officials said.

Kit Carson Electric Cooperative serves more than 29,000 members in those three counties, according to its website.

Officials spoke almost poetically about the potential changes coming Northern New Mexico's way with the expansion of high-speed Internet.

"Northern New Mexico will not be the remote part of the U.S., of New Mexico," Jeff Bingaman, New Mexico's senior U.S. Senator, told a small crowd at the Misión y Convento in Española.

It could be "the catalyst for transforming our region," added Virginia Vigil, chairwoman of the Santa Fe County Commission.

Monica Abeita, project coordinator for Redi Net, also spoke in big-picture terms.

"We think it will lead to a real vitalization of rural communities," Abeita said.

Officials also discussed a byproduct from the application process for the federal high-speed Internet dollars: how well all the disparate governments worked together.

"Twenty years ago, this never would have happened," said Michael Lopez of U.S. Sen. Tom Udall's office. "We weren't always the best at being friends."

Officials on Monday said the expansion of high-speed Internet into rural areas could make rural towns more competitive in the contest for businesses. They also noted how high-speed Internet could improve the lives of their constituents.

That means no more websites that load at a glacial pace. More sharing of photos, videos and audio recordings. More people working from home. And a leveling of the field for small businesses that can now market to a potentially new client base online.

Now, the information flows through a small "pipe," but with high-speed Internet, it will flow through a "canal," said U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., summarizing the leap in Internet speed many of his constituents could experience.

The money touted at Monday's event is part of the federal government's decision in 2009 to fund $7 billion in grants to expand broadband across the U.S.

As a rural, generally poor state, New Mexico has one of the lower adoption rates for high-speed Internet. Low-income households have much less access to high-speed Internet than wealthier families, government reports show.

In addition, those living on tribal lands have low adoption rates due to a lack of available infrastructure, according to the reports.

To ensure more New Mexicans adopt high-speed Internet, a statewide program funded by federal dollars already is seeking to train New Mexicans in the ways of the Internet and its benefits, officials said.

The program, Fast Forward New Mexico, involves The University of New Mexico, the Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship and the 1st-Mile Institute partnering with the New Mexico State Library to hold classes in communities around the state, said Alice Loy of the center.

"We don't believe if you build it they will come," Loy said. "You have to extend services to show people" how the Internet is relevant to their lives.

Individuals who take all of the center's classes learn anything from how to send an email to methods for managing Google documents to how to attract more eyeballs to a website by considering how search engines such as Google work.

Bingaman said he viewed the project as confirmation of the stimulus program's benefits.

There is dissension in Washington about whether stimulus money was well spent, but this project helped persuade him that it was, Bingaman said.

Contact Trip Jennings at 986-3050 or at tjennings@sfnewmexican.com.