Community Broadband Master Plan Guidebook

Wireless CompetitorsOn the competitive side of the wireless industry, more modestly sized companies—some based in NewMexico—offer either wireless mobile service or fixed wireless. Fixed wireless, like land-line service,delivers broadband capacity to a particular location rather than a mobile device, and can be animportant broadband solution in rural areas where wireline construction is cost-prohibitive.Wireless providers in New Mexico include: Agave Broadband LLC; Higher-Speed Internet, LLC; LeacoRural Telephone Cooperative, Inc.; PVT Networks, Inc.; Sacred Wind Communications, Inc.;Southwestern Wireless; Tularosa Basin Telephone Company, Inc.; and Kit Carson Electric Cooperative.(Another provider, Plateau Telecommunications, Inc., sold its wireless assets to Verizon Wireless inOctober 2012.) 4In many communities, there are one or two very small, local Internet service providers (ISP), frequentlyoffering wireless service in unlicensed spectrum such as Wi-Fi, that have survived industry consolidationand the unfortunate situation of big provider dominance of the broadband industry. You may find thatthere are local entrepreneurs in your community who are defying the odds in the broadband market—and can serve as potential partners for your project.This leads to our next topic: How do you identify, locate and contact these potential partners?Engaging with Industry PlayersYour most important source for information on local providers is the extensive work the State of NewMexico has done to collect and maintain a comprehensive provider database, and to map the availabilityof broadband by technology and provider in communities throughout the state. Chapter 1 aboveprovides a description of how to navigate the New Mexico Broadband Map (NMBB), and we recommendyou begin with a survey of the map to identify some of the providers that have infrastructure in or nearyour community—and therefore might be interested partners. Unfortunately, some providers havedeclined to provide data to the state, so the map may not be as comprehensive as we would like. It is anexcellent starting point, however, and the most important effort to date to determine what providersare in New Mexico, where they are, and how they operate. In addition, the state’s database of providersis available online; this database includes a comprehensive list of providers known to the state that ownfacilities and/or provide services in New Mexico, and their respective contact information. 5Another important means of identifying and contacting providers is through data your local governmentlikely already has. Your permitting or public works department is a potential source of information onwho has applied for permits to build in what areas, and current work that may be occurring even now. Ifthose providers are required to obtain a license or franchise in your community to use rights-of-way orother publicly held spaces, then the agency within your local government that provides and overseesthose credentials will also have information, including contact information, regarding existing (andperhaps potential) providers in and around your community. As discussed above in the introduction,4 “Verizon Wireless Completes Purchase of Southeastern New Mexico Rural Market,” News Release, VerizonWireless, October 16, 2012. http://news.verizonwireless.com/news/2012/10/pr2012-10-16e.html5 See: “Participating Internet Service Providers,” New Mexico Department of Information Technology,http://www.doit.state.nm.us/broadband/isps.shtmlNMBB Program: Community Broadband Master Plan Guidebook 25