TECHNOLOGY
State to launch free broadband workforce training
$2 million federal grant for the program comes as New Mexico looks to connect households, businesses to internet
SANTA FE — A recent $2 million federal grant awarded to the New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion is set to develop the next generation of technicians to connect even the most remote reaches of the state to high-speed internet, the nervous system of the digital age.
The state broadband office, created in 2021, is set to leverage the infusion of federal dollars to launch a free three-year statewide workforce development program, which hosts its first classes on Feb. 9 in Santa Fe and March 16 at Jemez Pueblo.
“And those ones are already full,” said OBAE Director Jeff Lopez, whom Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham appointed to lead the department last June. “We’ve gotten a really significant amount of interest because of all that the certification would provide for these workers. The next (class) is in San Juan College in Farmington.”
The state broadband office partnered with the Department of Workforce Solutions to create the program and contracted with Building Industry Consulting Service International to provide lab equipment, workbooks, tools and teaching equipment.
“The state workforce development plan identifies broadband expansion as a priority sector because the industry is critical to New Mexico’s future and offers good jobs with strong career ladders,” DWS Cabinet Secretary Sarita Nair said in a statement. “With historic broadband investments underway, this partnership and training program, together with our other broadband workforce initiatives across the state, are preparing New Mexicans for the jobs needed to build equitable broadband access statewide.”
Each class includes five days of “hands-on training,” covering introductory broadband installation, fiber-optic installation, copper-based cabling installation and technician training.
U.S. Sens. Ben Ray Luján and Martin Heinrich helped secure the federal grant to fund the three-year program through the fiscal year 2024 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Act, according to a news release.
“Expanding broadband access across our communities is essential for accessing health care, job opportunities, and education. That’s why I’m proud to have helped secure $2 million in funding for the New Mexico Office of Broadband Workforce Development Program,” Luján said.
The goal of the training program aligns with OBAE’s core mission — connecting every household and business in New Mexico to the high-speed internet grid, entailing average download speeds of 100 megabits per second and upload speeds of 20 megabits per second.
“When the office was first created, we were behind the average nationally,” Lopez said. “Now about 9 in 10 households and businesses, or 90%, have access to broadband.”
He expects that to increase to 94% by year's end as the broadband office continues to deploy public funding.
The federal Broadband Equity, Access and Development Program, a $42.45 billion initiative meant to connect all Americans to high-speed internet, is expected to bring broadband to all New Mexicans in coming years, Lopez added.
The federal government last month also approved a $382 million broadband infrastructure proposal for the New Mexico broadband office, which will award 31 grants through the BEAD program, created in 2021 under former President Joe Biden as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
A total of 90 applications for funding were reviewed, and OBAE has greenlit 17 projects across 32 of the state’s 33 counties. Grant recipients include nine internet service providers and satellite companies, five cooperatives and three tribal communities, according to a press release.
The infrastructure set to bring broadband to new areas of the state includes a mix of fixed wireless, fiber and low-Earth orbit satellite technologies, all of which Lopez described as “future-proof.”
“It can support the speeds and latency for everything that we anticipate in the future to be communicated over these networks,” he said.
John Miller is the Albuquerque Journal’s northern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at jmiller@abqjournal.com.
