The New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion (OBAE) has awarded grants of $100,000 each to the Pueblo of Pojoaque and Kit Carson Electric Cooperative, Inc. The two organizations were each awarded the maximum grant of $100,000 through the Grant Writing, Engineering and Planning Program (GWEP).
The Pueblo of Pojoaque will use the funding to launch an initiative to strengthen connectivity, “ensure accurate broadband service representation” and prepare for future infrastructure investment.
The Kit Carson Electric Cooperative, which is headquartered in Taos, will strengthen its federal grant proposals. GWEP funding will be used for preliminary planning, mapping, design and engineering for high-speed Internet, the press release says.
“These grants serve as another milestone to help expand broadband across New Mexico,” Neala Krueger, the Office of Brand Access and Expansion’s (OBAE) state grants program coordinator, said in a press release. “The state is committed to delivering broadband to rural locations, and we are thrilled more entities have applied to this program as they plan and prepare their broadband deployment.”
To date, the OBAE has awarded $3.3 million via 34 GWEP grants. They are benefiting 15 Tribal communities, 15 local governments and four electric and telephone cooperatives.
New Mexico has allocated $5 million to the GWEP program and $1.7 million in planning grants is still available. Awards are assistance, not merit-based grants. This means entities do not need to compete for funding and no matching funds are required.
In July, the New Mexico OBAE gave three $100,000 broadband grants to Valencia County, the Pueblo of Laguna, and the Pueblo of Acoma.
Earlier that month the OBAE granted $1.5 million to Transworld Network LLC to provide broadband to 484 unserved or underserved rural students and faculty of the Silver Consolidated School District, which serves the students of Silver City.
More information about New Mexico broadband, including links to state funding resources, grants made, BEAD news, state-specific Telecompetitor coverage, and more can be found on Telecompetitor’s Broadband Nation webpage for the state.
