New Mexico’s Three-Year Plan to Close the Digital Divide

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Every unserved or underserved residential and business location in New Mexico now has an enforceable commitment or provisional award to obtain a broadband connection. This milestone was made possible by a patchwork of state and federal funding efforts and program development. The New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion reflected on its progress and assessed its path forward in the recently released Three-Year Statewide Broadband Plan. This new plan maintains the goals of OBAE’s former strategic plans and identifies new strategies to continue making progress on closing the digital divide in New Mexico over the next three years.

This new plan maintains the goals of OBAE’s former strategic plans and identifies new strategies that reflect what is necessary to continue making progress on closing the digital divide in New Mexico over the next three years.

OBAE’s Program Goals

OBAE’s plan has four main program goals that inform its ongoing work on broadband access and adoption.

1. Universal Availability

New Mexico residents and businesses should have access to terrestrial-based high-speed broadband networks that reliably deliver at least 100/20 Megabits per second (Mbps) speeds by 2029.

All terrestrial networks funded by the State of New Mexico’s grant programs should offer at least 100/100 Mbps, unless the applicant can demonstrate extraordinary circumstances that limit this speed. In such cases, the networks must offer 100/20 Mbps and be scalable to at least 100/100 Mbps.

2. Widespread Adoption

All New Mexico residents should have an opportunity to adopt the internet. This can occur at home, in an office, in a community institution, or through a mobile device.

All New Mexico residents should also be offered support to overcome adoption challenges, including programs that enable affordability, help obtain devices, provide digital literacy training, or ensure high-quality internet access at a nearby community institution.

3. Next Generation Advancement

New Mexico aims to be the most connected state in the nation, which necessitates additional steps, including:

• The Statewide Education Network (SEN) that connects public schools and libraries together through a scalable, reliable, affordable, and secure network.
• All communities should reside in proximity to open-access, middle-mile networks that facilitate reasonably priced, high-speed broadband services.
• Universal mobile 5G coverage that spans across all rural communities and highly trafficked roadways.
• Network architectures that deliver resiliency, redundancy, and security.

4. Program Stewardship

Universal connectivity, widespread adoption, and meaningful use will make possible a generational achievement that requires significant public investment and time, including:

• Committing to the utmost transparency and accountability of OBAE’s programs.
• Actively monitoring OBAE awardees and holding them accountable for all programmatic and compliance requirements.
• Collaborating with other agencies and Tribal Governments to ensure all broadband programs are efficiently and effectively planned and deployed.

New Strategic Priorities

OBAE’s plan includes six strategic priorities, the top-level themes the office will focus on over the next three years to align with its vision, mission, and program goals.

A. Statewide Connectivity

To date, OBAE has awarded more than $192 million to 23 separate entities for more than 50 individual broadband deployment projects, with nearly 30 percent of those awards going to Tribes. With the forthcoming approval of OBAE’s final proposal for the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program, an additional $432 million will be awarded to 17 entities for 32 individual projects.

With a combined $624 million in awards in place, OBAE’s work will increasingly center on ensuring that funded projects move efficiently from award to permitting and construction and into long-term operation, while maximizing public value, accountability, and community benefit. OBAE’s statewide connectivity strategy reflects this transition and establishes a framework for managing unprecedented levels of infrastructure investment and for taking the next steps to ensure these programs achieve the goal of creating universal broadband connectivity in New Mexico.

OBAE’s planned activities to advance statewide connectivity consist of four main initiatives:

1. Excellence in Grants Administration: Coordinating with Tribal governments, implementing standardized reporting and guidance for all grant-funded projects, supporting all BEAD subgrantees in project execution, and enhancing geospatial data infrastructure to track all funded broadband projects and measure deployment progress.
2. Non-Deployment Connectivity Programs: Completing a statewide gap analysis through a Request for Information (RFI), developing policy options to address locations served by low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites, and preparing program designs for potential BEAD non-deployment initiatives pending guidance from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
3. Project Management, Technical Assistance, and Permitting Guidance: Performing project monitoring and oversight activities, issuing guidance on state procurement rules, and identifying and tracking individual project-specific federal and State permitting requirements to monitor progress.
4. Workforce Development: Developing a “train the trainer” program for New Mexico Nations, Pueblos, and Tribes (NPTs) to support self-sustaining workforce development programs within and between sovereign Tribes, and exploring partnerships with higher education centers, county workforce boards, and local community centers to broaden geographic reach.

B. Affordability

Affordability is a core priority to reduce financial barriers and expand broadband adoption across New Mexico. Federal support is available through the Lifeline Program funded through the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Universal Service Fund (USF). In addition, many broadband infrastructure deployment programs reduce cost barriers to providing broadband access in rural areas. However, affordability remains a significant barrier to household participation on the internet.

Through targeted initiatives and expansion of existing programs, OBAE aims to reduce cost barriers, increase consumer choice, and connect residents to critical resources. Together, these strategies advance broadband affordability, strengthen digital inclusion, and support long-term educational, economic, and community outcomes statewide.

OBAE’s planned activities to advance statewide affordability consist of three main initiatives:

1. New Mexico Broadband Affordability Program: The New Mexico Telecommunications Affordability Program (NMTAP) is a proposed subsidy program to replace the expired federal Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which ended in 2024. NMTAP would provide monthly reimbursements to households at or below a certain threshold of the federal poverty level, with extra support for seniors and rural households, and focused outreach to Tribal communities.
2. Competition and Transparency Requirements: This initiative seeks to lower broadband costs by boosting competition for broadband service and protecting consumers from hidden fees. All BEAD-funded networks must offer a permanent low-cost plan for eligible households. A state-run Pricing Transparency Portal will let residents compare speeds and full costs by address. This initiative also establishes a process to develop a Broadband Bill of Rights through public engagement to protect broadband consumers.
3. Coordinated Outreach & Enrollment Campaign: NTIA continues to require BEAD sub-awardees (entities that receive funding from the state for BEAD activities) to provide a low-cost service option to eligible subscribers. Sub-awardees must offer the low-cost plan throughout the 10-year federal interest period. In addition to the expanded availability of low-cost service options under BEAD, OBAE and the Connect New Mexico Council (CNMC) will work to encourage all internet service providers (ISPs) to provide low-cost options while OBAE strengthens outreach, launches an affordability campaign, and develops systems to promote and increase enrollment in federal and state broadband programs.

C. Strategic Infrastructure

The Strategic Infrastructure initiative supports broadband networks across the state to enable next-generation technologies and reinforce existing networks. Middle-mile and long-haul fiber infrastructure support the last-mile networks connecting homes, businesses, and community institutions to resilient, high-speed, and affordable broadband. The initiative provides transit-path resiliency in the event of disasters that require mutual aid and assistance. Today and in the future, New Mexico must also be ready to support our state priorities for space and defense, quantum technologies, artificial intelligence, and scientific research. These ventures require larger-scale, higher-capacity transport methods with resiliency to supply confidence and assurance of quality of service.

OBAE’s planned activities to ensure strategic infrastructure deployment consist of three main initiatives:

1. New Mexico Partnership Framework for Strategic Infrastructure Development: OBAE will work in conjunction with the Governor’s office, key legislators, the Economic Development Department, Department of Information Technology, and select organizations focused on science and technology to develop fiber infrastructure. Attracting investment through a public-private partnership model is a consequential factor in realizing “strategic infrastructure.” OBAE’s plan focuses on policies, rulemaking, legislation, and establishing key relationships to navigate interdependencies, solution sets, and deployments to enhance the state’s competitiveness.
2. Statewide Open Access Middle-Mile Backbone: New Mexico’s middle-mile strategy involves a three-phased approach:
   1. Leverage interstate highway corridors to establish open-access, dark-fiber networks with frequent interconnection points;
   2. Form regional rings off those corridors and then laterals into communities with an open-point of interconnection to enable the deployment of advanced broadband networks and future upgrades; and
   3. Establish Albuquerque as a major regional carrier hotel that lowers Internet Protocol transit costs, keeps intrastate traffic local, and improves network performance and resiliency for all New Mexico ISPs. And establish a statewide, diverse, and redundant middle-mile backbone with at least two physically diverse routes to every county seat and Tribal community by 2028.
3. Emergency Broadband Operations Team: This initiative sets out to formalize New Mexico’s Emergency Broadband Operations Team (EBOT), which responds to disasters and coordinates restoration of communications and broadband infrastructure following disasters, and integrates EBOT within the state’s broader emergency response teams, resulting in a more flexible network of organizations to respond promptly and efficiently to disasters or major disruptions.

D. Data, Policy, and Permitting

Data, Policy, and Permitting supports other strategic priorities to realize universal connectivity in New Mexico. This priority aims to establish:

• systems, processes, and policies that define broadband for New Mexico and
• efficiencies that reduce the effort, complexity, and time to deploy broadband infrastructure.

OBAE’s statutory mission requires the agency to coordinate state agencies to compile and publish data on broadband serviceable locations and community anchor institutions, including households, businesses, schools, libraries, and rural health care clinics. This initiative will support the establishment of broadband-related data standards and metrics.

OBAE will maintain an enterprise database and geographic information system of data, analytics, and mapping tools to support all strategic priorities.

OBAE will establish data governance policies that ensure standards of tribal data in accordance with protocols that respect and honor ongoing consultations with individual NPTs.

OBAE’s planned activities around data, policy, and permitting consist of four main initiatives:

1. Broadband Location Data Challenge: This initiative will improve definitions of broadband and broadband serviceable locations (BSLs) and track broadband availability, accessibility, and adoption for New Mexico residents. This will focus on integrating data across state grant funding programs to centralize monitoring of broadband investment, monitor deployment progress, and streamline reporting and compliance for federal and state programs, thus reducing administrative burdens while increasing accountability and trust.
2. Interagency Policies for Permitting: The policy initiative will focus on establishing greater coordination across agencies that control the right-of-way paths for broadband infrastructure. Efforts will involve OBAE taking a lead role to create Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) and influence rulemaking for the involved agencies. Similarly, interagency policies regarding standards and processes for foundational data development and usage across agencies will be included. Central to these efforts will be facilitation with Tribal entities, as applicable, regarding sovereign rights.
3. Infrastructure Data for Resiliency, Planning, and Innovation: This initiative dedicates resources to collecting and analyzing middle-mile and long-haul broadband infrastructure data statewide. This information is needed to support investments in infrastructure, promote long term sustainability and resiliency, and support strategic planning and economic development. This work includes developing GIS-based tools to support permitting, including:
   • a statewide Permit Finder that enables broadband providers to upload network designs and instantly identify permitting requirements based on jurisdictional boundaries and land ownership, and
   • a Permit Tracker that is a central reference for OBAE and the permitting stakeholders to monitor progress.
4. Establish Broadband Service Standards: OBAE will solicit public input on establishing state broadband quality of service standards. OBAE’s legislative mandate includes “[establishing] by rule standards for quality of service for homes, businesses, and public institutions.” Historically, OBAE has adopted the federal service standards mandated by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Capital Projects Fund and by NTIA’s BEAD Program. This solicitation would open an RFI on whether the state should adopt a single standard or have separate standards for different user segments or forms of broadband service (e.g., fixed vs. mobile).

E. Digital Opportunity

Digital opportunity primarily supports OBAE’s program goal of widespread adoption. This complements OBAE capital infrastructure projects and affordability initiatives to ensure that households first have access, then can afford service, and finally have the digital skills and training necessary to adopt internet connectivity. This work will foster opportunities to engage in meaningful internet use that enables socioeconomic progress and encourages practices that promote online safety and security.

OBAE’s planned digital opportunity activities consist of three main initiatives:

1. Foundations for Digital Opportunity: Develop a program to build support and long-term sustainability for digital inclusion and digital opportunity initiatives that help New Mexico residents use the internet effectively, meaningfully, and safely, especially in rural and tribal communities.
2. Digital Opportunity Resource Inventory: Develop and promote an online inventory of digital opportunity resources to support and improve public access, awareness, and support for digital opportunity programs in New Mexico.
3. Digital Opportunity TechSmart Initiative: Develop and grow the Digital Opportunity TechSmart Initiative, which cultivates interagency collaboration to identify, support, and expand cooperative digital opportunity and digital navigator programs that ensure New Mexico residents are TechSmart and have the tools and skills needed to use the internet effectively, meaningfully, and safely.

F. Network Operations

The Statewide Education Network (SEN) was developed in collaboration with local ISPs to connect hundreds of New Mexico schools, provide a more secure internet, and enhance education through shared classes, resources, and various services. The SEN went live on July 1, 2024, joining a large group of similar networks in other states. The network provides high-speed broadband capacity (100 Gigabits per second) between all major regions of the state to all New Mexico public schools. The SEN has helped approximately 120 districts and charter schools upgrade their networks and leverage federal E-rate funding, which discounts monthly connectivity costs.

OBAE must adopt and implement the best industry standards and frameworks for operations, resiliency, and security to ensure the highest level of sustainability, availability, and user satisfaction in networks like SEN. Other New Mexico organizations can adapt and use the same standards and framework for their own networks, particularly rural health care clinics and libraries that are similarly eligible for support through the federal Universal Service Fund (USF).

OBAE’s planned network operations activities consist of three main initiatives:

1. SEN Operational Excellence: This initiative will support the operation, growth, and continuous change and improvement for the SEN. OBAE seeks to improve upon the organizational structure of personnel, tools, and processes as the SEN template is applied to other broadband networks of various sizes and complexities in New Mexico.
2. SEN Expansion & Sustainability: Under this initiative, the SEN will expand to cover additional locations and institutions beyond K-12 schools. OBAE operates the SEN to maximize support from the federal USF for schools through the E-Rate program. OBAE also maintains the Broadband Deployment and Connectivity Program (BDCP) to directly assist schools beyond the SEN. OBAE will continue to grow the overall number of schools and districts connected to the SEN and connect students to school resources and a safer internet through the SEN.
3. SEN Resiliency and Security: New Mexico schools, like many public institutions across the country, are targets of cyberattacks and vulnerable to disruptions from accidents and natural disasters. The SEN is part of the critical infrastructure connecting these institutions, and OBAE will continue to work with the New Mexico Office of Cybersecurity to ensure networks are resilient and protected from attacks and disruptions. To provide this capability, OBAE will invest resources for back-up equipment, explore resilient pathways, and enter into contracts to restore access in the event of disruption.

One Unified Approach to Sustaining Statewide Initiatives

OBAE’s Three-Year Statewide Broadband Plan seeks to maintain the consistent broadband and digital opportunity work accomplished by the office while preparing for future funding initiatives and growth. With the BEAD Program funding just around the corner, the state is preparing for an influx of funding and is ensuring that all of its current and upcoming programmatic work is cohesive and complementary.

OBAE’s plan also folds in elements of New Mexico’s Digital Equity Plan, created in preparation for funding under the Digital Equity Act, which was illegally terminated by the Trump Administration in 2025. The Three-Year Statewide Broadband Plan upholds many of the state’s goals that would have been supported by the Digital Equity Act: availability & affordability; online accessibility; digital literacy; online privacy & cybersecurity; and device availability.

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Upcoming Events

Jan 14––Oversight of the Federal Communications Commission (House Commerce Committee)

Jan 29––January 2026 Open Federal Communications Commission Meeting (Federal Communications Commission)

Feb 1-2––To Have and Have Not: Growing Asymmetries in Communications Technology (University of Colorado Boulder)

Feb 3-5––Net Inclusion 2026 (National Digital Inclusion Alliance)

Feb 4-5––INCOMPAS Policy Summit 2026 (INCOMPAS)

Feb 18––Telecom Act at 30: Universal Service as the North Star (Benton Institute for Broadband & Society)