Local Telecom Expands Fiber in Rural Sacramento Mountains
PVT brings high-speed internet to underserved sections of southeast New Mexico
[Sponsored content]
Fiber optic cables, the light-harnessing strands of glass that power much of our digital world are finally being strung in rural southeast New Mexico.
Peñasco Valley Telephone Cooperative (PVT) has embarked on a costly and cumbersome mission to connect hundreds of miles of fiber in the unforgiving terrain of the Sacramento Mountains.
The Reader caught up with PVT’s Chief Operations Officer Mitch Hibbard and PR Manager Tabitha Davis at Black Bear Coffee Shop as they returned from Broadband Day at the state capitol.
“We feel it’s important to represent our area during the legislative session. We make several trips to Santa Fe as legislation is being considered,” says Mitch.
The communications cooperative has been on a years-long mission to bring fiber lines to rural southeast New Mexico. PVT’s headquarters are in Artesia but the company provides internet and phone service to far-flung communities in the Sacramento Mountains, including Weed, Sacramento, Piñon, Mayhill, and neighborhoods within James Canyon.
“We typically have one customer every two miles. The business case is a little rough when you’re looking at fiber costing $80,000 to $120,000 per mile,” says Tabitha.
Most large providers are unwilling to serve areas where PVT operates, where a small population is spread thin over thousands of miles of land. It is too cost-prohibitive.
“And that’s why these co-ops were created and continue to operate, because no one would serve them,” says Mitch.
PVT has secured tens of millions of dollars in state and federal loans and cost share funding for their efforts to expand rural internet access. Many of the grants require a matching contribution, meaning PVT must commit their own dollars to secure the aid.
Crews recently built fiber to the town of Lincoln, New Mexico, famous for its Wild West tales. “Those folks said it was the most exciting thing since Billy the Kid was there,” says Mitch.
Lasers, Glass, and Satellites
PVT currently operates more than 1,200 miles of fiber network over a 5,000-square-mile area. With its current funding, which comes mainly from the federal Reconnect program distributed by the US Department of Agriculture, it will add another 650 miles of fiber.
”So fiber is glass. It uses light impulses instead of any electrical charge. It’s heavily protected and it’s tough stuff. It has lasers on each end, and that’s the light source,” says Mitch.
Those light impulses house mountains of data carried through glass strands of fiber cables. While satellite internet companies like StarLink have received a lot of press lately, Mitch argues that fiber is the more permanent solution to connect homes to high-speed internet.
“We see the advent of StarLink…and that's great. I mean, there’s a role for that because some of these places are going to take us a million dollars to get fiber to one house. Our CEO is committed bring fiber to every cooperative member. We’ll find a way. But it is a challenge and for now, maybe StarLink is a temporary solution until we get fiber to them,” says Mitch.
The issue with wireless connections—think satellites and cell towers—is that the equipment on those platforms lasts five to seven years, according to Mitch. “It’s not as robust as fiber and when you talk about AI and quantum computing and things like that. It’s just not going to happen. And there’s some sustainability issues with it too,” he says in regards to StarLink.
Telecom companies may have funding to replace aging wireless equipment today, but the equipment has a short lifespan and money to replace it years down the road is not always guaranteed.
“What we are building out now with our fiber network, we’re trying to future-proof it,” says Mitch. “Once the fiber is out there, all you need to do as technology changes, is change the electronics at the end. That’s all you have to do. We haven’t found the limitations of fiber yet.”
PVT is now installing equipment with technology that provides 10 gigabytes per second of download speeds. For comparison, this reporter’s house currently operates at 25 megabytes per second (there are 1,000 MB in a GB), and it’s enough to stream Netflix, host video conference calls, and scroll endlessly.
While the technology is there for 10 GB service, as Mitch says, there’s not a lot of use for it yet. Fiber is “the most future proof technology at this time,” says Mitch.
PVT uses existing power poles to install its fiber cables. Poles are inspected prior to adding aerial fiber cable and replaced if needed. Burying lines underground is costly and time-consuming in the rock-strewn Sacramentos.
“After years of designing and permitting, you will see construction crews out there placing fiber,” says Tabitha.
Local Roots
Mitch lives in the rural hamlet of Piñon, about fifteen miles south of Weed, where he and his family operate a ranch. Electricity arrived at their family home about 75 years ago through the Rural Electrification Act; government funding similar to subsidies used by PVT to connect faraway homes with fiber today.
The Peñasco Valley Telecommunications Cooperative’s roots stretch back to 1905 when ranchers in Hope pooled their resources to access telephone lines. Phone wires were strung along fence posts and a switchboard was operated out of a family’s living room.
The collection of farmers and ranchers later grew into a cooperative. Households that signed up for service became members and owners of the company.
“For us, it was 1949. There’s some funding available. Let’s go around and see if everybody will chip in 50 bucks, and we’ll eventually get a phone line. We’ll get one of these loans from the rural utility service…and that’s what they did. And it’s still a co-op,” says Mitch.
“That’s the issue with the big statewide and federal investment. If they invest that in fiber it provides connectivity for cell towers. Fiber is what connects community anchor institutions like schools, fire stations, police stations, and libraries,” says Mitch.
Navigating the Legislature
PVT applied for state and federal loans and cost-share funding programs to construct fiber in rural southeast New Mexico beginning in 2018. Much of the co-op’s recent funding comes from the USDA Rural Development ReConnect program.
“There’s a lot of things New Mexico struggles with that broadband doesn’t cure, but it certainly helps. New Mexico struggles with employment and we struggle with education. We’re fortunate here [in Cloudcroft] to have a good school, that’s not the case around the state…You can go to college, almost get an Ivy League degree if you want, just online. You can find employment and work remotely if you have a sufficient and reliable connection,” says Mitch.
COVID and environmental reviews slowed fiber expansion during and after 2020. Materials and equipment were caught in supply chain slumps during the pandemic. “Even though it has taken years and a lot of hard work and dedication, we're not stopping,” says Tabitha.
“Through the federal government, it was determined that $675 million is what's needed to connect everybody in the state of New Mexico,” says Mitch, quoting numbers from the national Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program (BEAD), which came up with the assessment.
Recently, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced plans to ease access to federal funding for satellite internet companies in the government’s effort to expand high-speed internet access to rural areas. The funding spigot was always “technology neutral,” says Mitch, but it had emphasized fiber cable connections over platforms like StarLink.
Mitch likens the move to buying a generator for households without electricity instead of funding the electric poles and lines that would hook-up a house permanently. One is a temporary solution, like StarLink, that will last a few years until equipment will need to be replaced. The other is more permanent, like fiber.
From Mayhill and Beyond
Traveling along Highway 82 between Cloudcroft and Mayhill, passersby may or may not notice PVT’s Mayhill office. The ranch-like complex is meant to blend with the landscape.
“There's a team of service techs that are local guys, that are all local employees that live here, spend their money locally. They work out of there. That's where they're dispatched from,” says Mitch.
PVT employs 103 people in Southeast New Mexico. Beyond employing many in the community, the company provides scholarships to outstanding students at Cloudcroft and surrounding schools.
Crews recently finished stringing fiber to Cloud Country Estates and Cloud Country West subdivisions. They are moving on to James Canyon, Weed and Sacramento during the next few months.
To find out if you live in a project area for fiber expansion, “you can go to our website and put in your address, and it’s going to tell you if you’re in a project area. You can even preregister to have the fiber brought to your house,” says Tabitha.
For more information, visit PVT.com.
This article is brought to you exclusively by our sponsor, PVT:
Promote your business
Learn about sponsorship opportunities for your business in support of the Reader. Contact us for more information at sponsorship-info@cloudcroftreader.com
With 2,700+ email subscribers and 9,000+ Facebook followers, the Cloudcroft Reader is the most widely read publication serving the greater Cloudcroft community. We do the reporting that no one else does.
Position your business one click away from the people that make Cloudcroft unique.
Support local news. Cloudcroft Reader relies on the support of our community and readers like you. Will you support us and keep our essential work going strong?