Internet access is about to take a leap in rural New Mexico when the Legislature, as expected, approves $70 million for satellite service requested by the Broadband Office, but there's a higher hurdle to vault over to ensure reliable and speedy internet for households still waiting. 

The $70 million is earmarked to provide two years of subsidized satellite service while the cumbersome and expensive process of laying high-speed fiber to remote areas is completed. Upon completion the office assumes satellite service will then be replaced with the $70 million spent.

The state is receiving $675 million in broadband money, thanks to former President Biden's infrastructure bill, and the $70 million is a response to complaints over fiber taking years to get to households while ignoring satellite.

The concern now is that the state and feds are are already falling behind by failing to embrace future advances in satellite speeds even as current speeds are already more than proficient for the vast majority of households being targeted for fiber.

The major telco companies and other contractors are pleased as they get paid for the fiber rollout but  redirecting a healthy portion of that $675 million to satellite would position the state for future faster internet that would compete and perhaps surpass expensive fiber.

Already many households that do not need a government subsidy are accessing satellite and are pleased. They don't want or require the high speed fiber that even most ABQ and Santa Fe homes and businesses don't have. Those satellite fans will be unlikely to switch and pay for the fiber option if and when it becomes available. (Monthly service for Starlink is about $120 a month with the equipment advertised at $249.)

To back out of fiber Congress would have to approve a redeployment of the broadband funds, but that's no longer difficult to imagine. Starlink, the major provider of satellite service, is owned by Elon Musk, now a fixture in the Trump camp. 

Musk pointing out that satellites could provide high speed internet at drastically lower prices and not far in the future the same speeds could be flagged as a conflict of interest. But Musk is the one with the technology along with Project Kuiper from Jeff Bezos whose company could also be tapped by the Feds. (The cost of fiber can soar as high as $50,000 per household in remote areas.)

For the sake of rural New Mexico households stranded on the information superhighway, one can hope Musk, Trump and Congress do indeed disrupt what could be a mistake in the making as the state tries to lay fiber where satellite signals are making that technology unnecessary and possibly obsolete.

That $70 million in two year funding is welcome but more permanent subsides for satellite is the prudent road for policy makers to follow in a fast-changing tech landscape.

This is the Home of New Mexico Politics.