New Fiber Route Ends High Speed Outages in McKinley County

The Office of Broadband Access and Expansion announced on December 23 that a critical broadband resiliency project serving Gallup and McKinley County is complete. The work creates a secondary communications connection into Gallup by leasing an alternate fiber route built by Ethos Broadband of Yatahey, a step intended to prevent service interruptions when the main line is cut. The completion marks the end of frequent high speed internet outages that had affected tens of thousands of residents.

The project was delivered through a partnership among OBAE, Lumen Technologies, and Ethos Broadband, with funding and coordination provided in part by OBAE. Under the arrangement Lumen is leasing the new route from Ethos, establishing a redundant path that telecommunications engineers say will reduce the likelihood of isolated blackouts and improve continuity for essential services.

Local officials framed the upgrade as immediately practical for household needs and critical public services. “This upgrade reduces isolated outages and keeps families connected to critical health information and everyday necessities, including electronic payments like EBT,” Sen. George Muñoz said.

For residents, the redundancy means greater assurance that telehealth appointments, online bill payment, school connectivity, and commerce will be less likely to be disrupted by single points of failure on the network. Small businesses and tribal government offices that rely on continuous internet service for transactions and communications stand to gain stability, and emergency communications systems will have an additional route to maintain contact during incidents that previously caused extended outages.

The successful deployment in McKinley County also serves as a model for further resiliency investments across rural New Mexico. State officials and providers described the completion as a precedent for similar projects aimed at hardening networks where a single damaged fiber line can cut off whole communities.

Work on the alternate route concluded on December 23, and service operators have begun integrating the new path into existing network operations. Providers say testing and monitoring will continue as the redundant route comes into routine use.