Rural Valencia County Broadband Expansion Connects 4,000 Homes, Businesses

State leaders packed the gymnasium at Valencia High School in Los Lunas to mark the launch of more than 4,000 new high-speed internet connections across rural Valencia and Socorro counties, the result of six state grants totaling approximately $12.8 million awarded to Resound Networks through the New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion.

The projects will connect 4,093 homes, businesses, farms and community anchor institutions using a combination of fiber and fixed wireless technology. Three of the six grants, totaling more than $7.4 million, came through the Connect New Mexico Fund. Those projects include the Valencia County Borderlands fiber build connecting 338 locations at $2.6 million, the Casa Colorado fiber project reaching 361 locations at $2.4 million, and a Valencia County fixed wireless deployment serving roughly 2,400 locations at $2.4 million. The remaining three grants fall under OBAE's Student Connect program, which will bring service to 975 rural students in Los Lunas, Belen and Socorro schools.

Lt. Gov. Howie Morales, who grew up in rural Silver City, described the expansion as a turning point. "It's no longer that utilizing broadband WiFi is a luxury. It's a necessity, and this gives the opportunity to do so," Morales said. He also framed the work in terms of educational equity: "It means opportunity. It means accessibility for students all across the state of New Mexico to have an equal opportunity that is offered to people that come from bigger cities."

Sen. Angel Charley, a Democrat from Acoma, went further, calling internet access a civil right on par with electricity and running water. "Just like electricity, just like clean drinking water, broadband is essential for our full participation in society," Charley said. She also emphasized the stakes for safety: "Being connected, it's a lifeline for many of us. It means receiving emergency alerts, weather updates, evacuation notices and public safety information in real time."

Resound Networks CEO Tyson Curtis credited the state partnership as the foundation that made the projects viable. "We're delivering connectivity where it's needed most, in classrooms, on farms, and in homes across Valencia and Socorro Counties," Curtis said. "This collaboration is how we ensure no community gets left behind."

Neala Krueger, OBAE's state grants senior program manager, framed the milestone in terms of what rural residents had long lacked. "It's imperative that all New Mexicans have online access to education, telehealth, economic opportunity and critical services," Krueger said.

The urgency behind the projects traces partly to the pandemic, when families in rural Valencia County without home connections depended on public libraries to keep students enrolled in remote learning. The new infrastructure is designed to eliminate that gap permanently, extending fiber lines and fixed wireless towers into dispersed rural communities that traditional service providers bypassed.