$1.5M broadband grant serves Silver City students

SILVER CITY — Nearly 500 student households will soon have access to free high-speed internet service in Grant County for three years, thanks to a new $1.5 million grant from New Mexico’s state-funded Student Connect program.

Internet provider TWN Communications, the grant’s participant, joined in a symbolic ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the grant award at Silver High School on Wednesday. Lt. Gov. Howie Morales took part along with state Rep. Luis Terrazas, R-Santa Clara, and officials from the state Office of Broadband Access and Expansion and the Silver Consolidated Schools.

The fixed wireless project will beam internet service via radio signals from cellular towers to 484 households for use in necessary functions such as schoolwork, college or job applications, government paperwork, accessing news and telehealth services, in addition to entertainment and general communications.

“It’s imperative that every single New Mexico family and New Mexico student has access to high-speed internet,” OBAE director Jeff Lopez told an invited audience that included Silver High students. “Broadband is no longer a luxury. It’s become a necessity. It’s a utility.”

This was the OBAE’s 12th Student Connect grant, bringing the total awarded to $23 million.

Morales recalled the COVID-19 pandemic as a “wake-up call” for the necessity of building internet connectivity across the state through a combination of fiber-optic installation and fixed wireless projects in areas where fiber infrastructure was not feasible.

Terrazas underscored that reliable connectivity was indispensable for business and industry, noting his own experience operating funeral homes in Grant and Luna counties, for which he depends on multiple providers to sustain business functions and security.

The Student Connect grants are awarded through a fund created by the New Mexico Legislature in 2021. The complimentary service will expire in three years, Lopez acknowledged in an interview, saying “a permanent structure to support affordability in New Mexico” would be a priority initiative the OBAE will champion during the 30-day legislative session opening Jan. 20.

While the Student Connect program is state-funded, the OBAE relies heavily on federal funds to support projects connecting communities across the state, such as a $3.7 million fiber internet project in Columbus installing nearly 50 miles of fiber optic line. That grant was funded through the American Rescue Plan Act, with provider Valley TeleCom contributing $5.7 million on its own. 

Last week, the office released its three-year broadband plan as a blueprint for completing the office’s goal of 100% high-speed connectivity statewide.  Among its key goals is for all residents and businesses to have access to high-speed service with minimum download/upload speeds of 100/20 megabits per second by 2029.

To complete that mission, the office will be counting on projects funded through the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, known as BEAD and created by Congress under the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. New Mexico was allocated $675 million in BEAD funding to connect unserved and underserved households, of which it preliminarily awarded $120 million in 2025. Lopez told the Journal the OBAE had submitted a final BEAD proposal to the NTIA in September, which is still under review.

Getting to the finish line

At the start of 2026, Lopez said 90% of households and small businesses had access to high-speed internet and the state was on a trajectory to reach 94% by year’s end through a combination of state and federal funding. The last 6% depends on federal approval of New Mexico’s BEAD plan.

Last summer, the Trump administration ordered restructuring of BEAD, with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration rescinding spending plans for some states that had been previously approved and issuing new guidance for states’ spending proposals.

And in late November, Republican Senators Joni Ernst of Iowa and Ted Cruz of Texas cosponsored legislation to claw back approximately $21 billion in unspent BEAD funds. The bill’s likelihood of finding support in Congress, where Republicans hold majorities in both chambers, is unclear.

“The horizon is always uncertain,” Lopez said. “It’s policy, it’s politics; but there is a nonpartisan commitment to connectivity and making sure everybody in the country has access to these services.”