en.Wedoany.com Reported - The New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion (OBAE) has awarded a total of $300,000 in broadband planning grants to Jemez Springs, Doña Ana County, and Santo Domingo Pueblo. These funds come from OBAE's Grant Writing, Engineering, and Planning Program (GWEP), which is supported by a $5 million state appropriation aimed at helping tribes, local governments, and cooperatives extend broadband coverage to unserved areas.

To date, OBAE has distributed GWEP grants to 18 tribal communities, 17 local governments, and four rural electric and telephone cooperatives. Currently, $1 million remains available for applications, with a maximum grant amount of $100,000 and no matching fund requirement. Internet service providers are not eligible for these grants. Jemez Springs will use the grant to study the feasibility of expanding middle-mile fiber infrastructure along the southern 10-mile corridor of Highway 4 and initiate engineering assessments and planning to provide fiber infrastructure to unserved and underserved residents, businesses, and municipal facilities. Doña Ana County will utilize the grant to deliver actionable engineering and planning outcomes for deploying public Wi-Fi at county government facilities, while evaluating connectivity options and developing plans to deploy public Wi-Fi in parks and recreational areas. Santo Domingo Pueblo will use the grant to document existing fiber lines and infrastructure to identify connectivity gaps and support the engineering and technical planning needed to expand its current fiber project, aiming for a seamless transition from current operations to broader coverage.

Neala Krueger, Senior Grant Program Manager at OBAE, stated that these grants will play a significant role in expanding broadband infrastructure in rural and tribal areas, and that enabling future connectivity through funding will help the state bridge the digital divide.

This marks the third GWEP grant announcement in the past few months. In October last year, New Mexico announced two broadband grants awarded to Pueblo of Pojoaque and Kit Carson Electric Cooperative, Inc. Subsequently, in December, two grants were announced for Santa Clara Pueblo in Rio Arriba County and Fort Sill Chiricahua Warm Springs Apache Tribe in Luna County. All grants were for the maximum amount of $100,000.

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