3540MM273

Purpose: The purpose of the project is to enhance ENMR Telephone Cooperative's existing network's infrastructure by creating alternate paths and increasing resiliency and bandwidth with upgrades and new fiber routes. It includes the construction of five new fiber segments, one of which completes a fiber ring linking Kermit, Texas to Jal, New Mexico in the southern edge of the middle mile network. The other four new fiber segments will create alternative diverse paths connecting Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico. The applicant's existing wholesale customers will immediately benefit from the expanded capacity and increased reliability. The applicant's objectives for the proposed project include assurance that last mile providers have access to affordable middle mile transport to the internet.

Activities to be performed: The project will use fiber to build a new and resilient middle mile network through unserved communities with a commitment to open access and carrier neutral non-discriminatory interconnect. The period of performance is expected to be 3 years.

Expected outcomes: The applicant has the following goals and deliverables for this project:
1. Construction of five new fiber segments to improve redundancy and decrease latency and upgrades to transport electronics throughout eastern New Mexico and West Texas.
2. Utilization of the existing central office (CO) and hut assets to install and operate newly proposed transport electronics, obviating the need to construct new COs and huts, further mitigating construction costs.
3. Increase bandwidth for the entire network from up to 800 Gbps to up to 16 Tbps, allowing last mile providers to increase upload speeds for end-users, strengthen the network against single points of failure, and provide redundancy.

Intended beneficiaries: The areas that will benefit from this project include 29 New Mexico and 20 Texas counties, serving a socio-economically diverse population of 3.4 million residents and 63 community anchor institutions. The service region includes both urban and rural segments with population densities ranging from 0.1 per square mile (Loving County, TX) and 0.3 (Harding County, NM) to 582.5 (Bernalillo County, NM) and 854.4 (El Paso County, TX). The project areas will benefit in the following ways:
1. Attracting additional last-mile providers to the unserved and underserved end-user locations along the route.
2. Extending broadband infrastructure to areas without access to last-mile high-speed terrestrial broadband providers. New Mexico has the highest percentage of residents in the Southwest without adequate broadband internet service, with 22% of New Mexico residents not having access to adequate broadband infrastructure. In at least five out of 33 New Mexico counties, more than 40% of households do not have internet access at all.
3. Increasing competition in the fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) end-user market by reducing costs to last-mile providers.
4. Improving redundancy between Albuquerque and Santa Fe.
5. Introducing new high-capacity DWDM nodes to the less populated towns of Raton and Maxwell, New Mexico.
6. Extending access to areas without current access to last-mile high-speed terrestrial broadband providers.
7. Increasing broadband upload and download speeds for end-users, allowing more ISP providers to participate in the market at a lower cost from increased capacity.

Subrecipient activities: The applicant will subaward funds to Baca Valley Telephone Company, Inc. and Delcom, Inc. for the construction of network infrastructure in their respective service areas.

Enmr Telephone Cooperative

11.033 - Middle Mile (Broadband) Grant Program

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) [DOC]

Clovis, New Mexico 88101-9730 United States

Single Zip Code

None

Infrastructure $49,858,624 (100%) percent this Project Grant was funded by the 2021 Infrastructure Act.