Broadband internet and Billy the Kid may seem like an unlikely pair. But both have brought excitement to this rural town between Ruidoso and Roswell.
Lincoln is a community steeped in its own history. One recent Sunday morning, dozens of locals mounted horses, climbed aboard floats and set out — with a call of “Wagons ho!” — in honor of the town’s annual Old Lincoln Days celebration.
A historic courthouse — home of the lockup where Billy the Kid, sentenced to hang, famously broke free after killing the deputies charged with guarding him — still stands at one end of town.
The central street, now dotted with historical markers rather than outlaws, still features the trappings of the Old West: thick adobe walls, false-front façades, a distinct lack of cell service.
However, there is high-speed internet.
In the past few years, Lincoln has benefited from New Mexico investments bringing speedy, reliable internet access to remote corners of the state. Its newfound — and expanding — broadband internet access is set to transform local emergency communications, ways of doing business and cultural events, in addition to expanding opportunities for telehealth services, remote work and online education.
From left, pageant cast members Arya Nowell, Kristy Silva, Dusty Rushing, Shana Nowell and Laura Wilson help each other with corset adjustments before the start of the Old Lincoln Days parade Aug. 3 in Lincoln. With a population around 200, Lincoln is one of the recent beneficiaries of New Mexico’s efforts to expand broadband internet access in rural communities.
But broadband infrastructure comes with a hefty price tag as internet providers — subsidized by government grants — install new equipment to reach New Mexico’s often rugged and rural locations. The cost-per-premise covered by the 2024 Connect New Mexico broadband grantees ranges from a few thousand dollars to more than $2 million per premise, a New Mexican analysis found.
With federal broadband investments slow to arrive in New Mexico and other states, balancing expanded access with the cost of connection represents a challenging choice for state leaders.
“The cost to connect 500 houses in northeast or -west side of Albuquerque is much lower per household than to connect a rural area outside of Raton or Columbus, N.M., where there isn’t the existing infrastructure,” said Jeff Lopez, director of the state Office of Broadband Access and Expansion.
Russ Warwick takes a selfie with the parade in the background during the Old Lincoln Days town celebration.
“It is a tough public policy decision on how to prioritize funding individual households, whether they’re in rural areas of New Mexico or otherwise,” he said.
What is broadband?
Put simply, broadband is high-speed, reliable internet.
The Federal Communications Commission’s current broadband speed benchmarks are a download speed of 100 megabits per second and an upload speed of 20 megabits per second — roughly enough to stream Netflix or send a video.
But these days, broadband isn’t just about entertainment, Lopez said; it’s a gateway to “all the modern necessities of life.”
“Broadband means access to health care through things like telehealth and telemedicine, connecting with doctors who might not be in your particular area but have the expertise you need to make sure that you’re well enough to get the care that you deserve,” he said. “Broadband means access to educational resources for school and at-home learning as well as jobs.”
Lilibeth Ramirez, 7, reacts after finding her own flake of “gold” at a panning for gold demonstration Aug. 3 during the Old Lincoln Days town celebration. It also features a Billy the Kid-themed parade and shoot-’em-up-show.
And yet, broadband remains relatively sparse outside New Mexico cities. About 10% of addresses in the state were considered underserved or unserved by the Federal Communications Commission in 2024.
Those unserved areas include the state’s especially rural communities — most of Catron County, for instance, falls into the category — but also places on the outskirts of larger cities, like neighborhoods north of Las Cruces and parts of Santa Fe and San Miguel counties east of Glorieta Pass.
Despite San Felipe Pueblo’s location between Santa Fe and Albuquerque, nearly all of its addresses are considered unserved.
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the broader need for broadband access, Lopez said. Students and remote workers flocked to parking lots outside fast-food restaurants or public libraries, hoping to connect to public Wi-Fi networks. Siblings gathered around a single internet hot spot to slowly complete schoolwork.
Legislation from the pandemic era jump-started federal investments in broadband.
The American Rescue Plan Act, signed into law in March 2021, provided New Mexico with an initial cache of about $120 million for broadband infrastructure projects, plus hundreds of millions more to bolster the state’s health care, education and transportation systems.
That money has since been disbursed throughout the state, with several funded networks — which stretch from Doña Ana to Rio Arriba counties — set to come online this year, according to documents from the state broadband office.
Also in 2021, Congress followed up with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, setting aside $42.5 billion for broadband investments, with New Mexico set to receive a $675 million chunk. Nearly four years later, though, that money hasn’t moved much.
Braxtin Carrizal, left, battles with his brother Arlo Carrizal for candy during the Old Lincoln Days town celebration in Lincoln on Aug. 3.
In the intervening years, New Mexico lawmakers have set aside money to fund broadband infrastructure projects.
State broadband investments
As Congress passed laws making massive investments in broadband infrastructure, so too did the New Mexico Legislature.
In 2021, state lawmakers set aside $70 million as an initial investment in the Connect New Mexico Fund, with the money designated to plan, design and construct broadband networks in unserved and underserved areas statewide. Related legislation established the state broadband office and required a statewide broadband plan.
The Legislature doubled down in 2023, adding another $124 million to the fund.
Where is that money going? The New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion announced the launch of the Connect New Mexico Fund in December 2023, offering up $70 million in grants.
Billy the Kid Pageant cast members ambush the sheriff and his posse Aug. 3 during the Old Lincoln Days celebration.
The state executed 22 such grants in 2024 totaling nearly $57 million in state money, with internet service providers ranging from giants like Comcast to local cooperatives. Progress reports from the state broadband office show those projects are now underway in various stages of planning, approval, design and construction across a dozen counties and five pueblos.
The projects are set to connect more than 17,000 homes, businesses, farms and community institutions.
Broken down by cost-per-connected-premise, however, the price tag on these projects can be eye-popping. For most projects, the cost per connection ranges from $1,000 to $7,000. Those costs grow closer to $20,000 per premise for some projects in Lincoln, Otero, Hidalgo and Grant counties.
In some of the state’s most rural areas, the costs balloon further. The awards max out with a nearly $5.5 million project in San Ildefonso Pueblo to connect just two businesses.
But the state isn’t just giving away money, said Mitch Hibbard, chief operating officer at the Artesia-based internet provider Peñasco Valley Telephone Cooperative. Internet service providers are offering matching funds totaling more than $35 million for the projects.
“There is no free money; there is an investment. We got skin in the game,” Hibbard said.
Nonetheless, providers admit the costs are steep, at least in part because of the unique challenges posed by New Mexico’s landscape.
Lopez gave this example: Imagine trying to install a piece of equipment that reaches both the peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the floor of the Rio Grande Gorge.
And then there’s the matter of ownership. New Mexico is a patchwork with a lot of public and tribal lands. Whether it’s installing fiber-optic cables or a new wireless tower, building in and around those areas requires extensive permitting processes, Hibbard said.
Essentially, the same things that make New Mexico unique also make broadband installation especially tough.
“What has been a draw to many tourists and visitors from out of state to come visit our New Mexico national parks and national monuments can also be a impediment to broadband infrastructure,” Lopez said.
Elias Matta tries his hand with a lasso in front of the museum at the Lincoln Historic Site during the Old Lincoln Days town celebration Aug. 3.
Not everyone agrees broadband is a worthwhile investment for some parts of the state’s most rural communities.
With its history of gunslingers and well-traveled sites, Lincoln makes sense as a hub for internet access in the area, said Lincoln County Commissioner Mark Fischer, who represents Lincoln and surrounding areas on the County Commission.
But he urged fiscal responsibility in the state’s broadband spending, arguing some ultra-rural residents can rely on satellite internet if fiber-optic options aren’t economically viable.
“Some want to turn it into a civil right. No, it’s not, actually,” Fischer said of broadband.
“If you have a reasonable concentration of the populace in an area where it is cost-effective, that makes a lot of sense,” he said. “But if you’re out where I am in a ranch area — you might have one person per square mile or less — it makes no sense. We should be spending our money on other things.”
In fact, Fischer argued broadband isn’t the major issue of the day in New Mexico, not compared to crime, a lack of educational and economic opportunities, or a dearth of health care professionals.
Telehealth appointments and online education won’t fix that either, he said. “Those are not real answers to those problems.”
But access to reliable internet can bring about some real change. Just look at Lincoln.
As staff from Peñasco Valley Telephone Cooperative — funded by a mix of grants and matching money — set about expanding broadband access in the unincorporated community, residents responded with enthusiasm, Hibbard said.
Connectivity is slated to make a range of tasks easier — from paying with a credit card to finding work to putting out fires.
As one resident told Hibbard during the broadband expansion, “This is the most excitement since Billy the Kid was here.”