San Ildefonso Pueblo pursues broadband access with $5 million federal grant

Claudia L. Silva, The Santa Fe New Mexican
·3 min read

Dec. 8—Internet access is a problem for many residents of San Ildefonso Pueblo.

Only 40 percent of tribal members in the pueblo have access to internet at home, said Laurence Peña, chief operating officer of San Ildefonso LLC. Those with access rely on wireless services with poor reception and are not usually able to reach Federal Communications Commission requirements for broadband, he said.

The pandemic and subsequent lockdowns drove home to many in the pueblo how limited internet access was. Though residents and schools began using mobile hot spots as they worked from home, they were still limited by connectivity issues.

"We knew, coming out of the pandemic, that we needed to do something to get us caught up," pueblo Gov. Christopher A. Moquino said.

Moquino and Peña hope a recent $4.95 million federal grant will help put a major dent in the problem by bringing high-speed internet to hundreds of Pueblo residents.

San Ildefonso Pueblo plans to use the grant, funded by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, to lay down fiber-optic cables and install new cellphone towers, bringing high-speed internet to over 255 homes and businesses.

"We look forward to filling the gaps for this needed infrastructure that's going to help our students and our administration and community as a whole," Moquino said. "It's hard to get excited about something still in the planning stages, but I think we see opportunity on the horizon, especially for our younger generation."

An announcement from San Ildefonso LLC, the company that got the contract, said the new service will build tribal IT capacity and help develop new job opportunities in the field. Moquino said access to broadband will also help improve the tribal government's cybersecurity and create new business opportunities for residents.

Internet access is a problem for tribal communities across New Mexico. A 2020 report from the state Indian Affairs Department found 80 percent of people living on tribal lands in New Mexico do not have internet services. New Mexico has some of the lowest rates of broadband access in the country — according to 2016 Census Bureau data, 26 percent of New Mexicans lack broadband connections and 9 percent don't have the ability to buy it due to lack of capacity where they live.

The Pueblo applied for a grant with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program in early 2021. The nearly $3 billion program was created under the Biden administration's Internet for All Initiative to boost high-speed internet network deployment on tribal lands across the country.

Moquino said members of the tribe began reaching out to public officials for help getting broadband installed in their community, including New Mexico's two U.S. senators and U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández.

"Expanding broadband access in every community across our country will continue to be my priority, especially in rural and Tribal communities," U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján said in a statement following the announcement. "This significant NTIA investment of $4.9 million for San Ildefonso Pueblo will help install necessary upgrades to connect more than 200 households to reliable internet. This federal funding is exactly the support needed to help close the digital divide and increase opportunities on Tribal lands in New Mexico."

Peña said the company already has preliminary plans for the project, but is waiting for the final engineering design's approval from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and other government agencies.

He said the company hopes to have the project completed within a year, but he worries supply chain issues and inflation could cause delays.

"What may happen, just because of ... supply chain issues, is we may apply for an extension if we need to, but the plan is actually to meet the deadline," Peña said.