{"id":78988,"date":"2025-08-13T06:15:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T06:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/78988\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T06:15:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T06:15:08","slug":"states-new-broadband-boss-says-satellite-is-significant-in-getting-new-mexico-100-connected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/78988\/","title":{"rendered":"State\u2019s new broadband boss says satellite is \u2018significant\u2019 in getting New Mexico 100% connected"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was originally published<\/a> by Source New Mexico.<\/p>\n

Even with federal changes to a huge funding stream for New Mexico, 90% of the state has access to high-speed internet, and contracts will be in place for the last 10% by the end of next year, the new leader of a state broadband office said Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And to get over the finish line, satellite internet is a \u201csignificant part of the picture,\u201d said Jeff Lopez, who is beginning his eighth week in charge of the New Mexico Broadband Access and Expansion Office. Lopez was speaking to state lawmakers on the interim Economic and Rural Development committee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still \u2018fiber first,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cWe\u2019re focusing on areas that are financially prudent for that fiber connectivity, but low-Earth orbit satellites are going to be part of the picture, again, of meeting that commitment by the end of 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roughly 90,000 New Mexico locations are \u201cunserved\u201d or \u201cunderserved\u201d in terms of broadband access, according to Lopez\u2019s presentation. \u201cUnserved\u201d households have download speeds of less than 25 megabits a second, while \u201cunderserved\u201d have download speeds between 25 megabits a second and 100 megabits a second. A household of four with a 100-megabit download speed could stream videos, work remotely and have video calls like for telemedicine, \u201cbut not necessarily all at once,\u201d Lopez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The extent to which New Mexico\u2019s internet connectivity plans include satellite, has been an open question amid federal changes to an infrastructure spending bill passed during President Joe Biden\u2019s term.<\/p>\n

Also, during the legislative session earlier this year, as Elon Musk\u2019s so-called Department of Government Efficiency was firing federal workers and dismantling\u00a0 federal programs, state lawmakers removed $70 million for satellite internet in the state budget that the previous broadband director said would likely have gone directly to Musk\u2019s company satellite internet company Starlink. That funding cut does not affect the office\u2019s timeline.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Satellite internet companies can provide access in rural areas and those where overlapping jurisdictions or topographical features make it difficult and expensive to bury fiber lines Lopez said. But he also said fiber is \u201cfuture proof\u201d because it\u2019s a largely permanent installation safely underground<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still believe that [fiber] is the best connectivity that money can buy, but it\u2019s often much more expensive than alternatives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Satellite, on the other hand, is not as resilient to natural disasters, he said, and the technology isn\u2019t \u201cfully fleshed out yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes sense in areas with open skies, but we also have a lot of community communities along waterways and valleys, along bosques, whether it\u2019s tree coverage or just a mesa or a mountain in the way, that can also impede some of the access,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s infrastructure bill created the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program to oversee billions of dollars in internet connectivity spending. The state broadband office successfully qualified for $675 million of it <\/a>and, Lopez said, was in the final steps last month of awarding sub-grantees the funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But in early June, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced rule changes to the program that leaders said were aimed at reducing regulatory burdens and ensuring that all broadband technologies had equal footing when competing for the funds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The change toward \u201ctechnology neutrality\u201d meant the removal of \u201cprevious restrictions that favored fiber deployments,\u201d according to a news release from the broadband office in early July. In addition to giving satellite a better shot at the funding, the rule change required all potential recipients of the funding to submit a new round of applications \u201cregardless of where the state was in its sub-grantee selection process,\u201d according to the news release.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two satellite companies have put in bids for the federal broadband\u00a0 funding, Lopez said Monday. He declined to name which companies are seeking the funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you might be able to guess,\u201d Lopez told lawmakers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the state Broadband Office\u2019s application page for the federal money, SpaceX, which provides Starlink, is one of a handful of \u201cprequalified applicants\u201d that provides internet access. It appears to be the only satellite internet provider on the list.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Source New Mexico<\/a> is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Source New Mexico maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Julia Goldberg for questions: info@sourcenm.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published by Source New Mexico. Even with federal changes to a huge funding stream…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[2185,55694,9556,7264,174,3828,6712,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-78988","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-broadband","9":"tag-broadband-development","10":"tag-doge","11":"tag-infrastructure","12":"tag-internet","13":"tag-new-mexico","14":"tag-satellite-internet","15":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}