In mid-2013, our Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments (SWNMCoG), the identified Economic Development agency for our region, wrote a proposal to the New Mexico Department of Information Technology, and we were selected as a Pilot Planning Region for the Rural Broadband Implementation Program.

In this pilot study, there are three major goals:
1). Assess current availability and performance of broadband internet in our region, which is Catron, Grant, Hidalgo, and  Luna counties;
2). Identify future broadband needs in a variety of entities (example, government agencies; schools; healthcare facilities; businesses; non-profits; and residential);
3) Develop strategies and tactics to meet current and future needs.

YOU CAN HELP with very little work on your part. One of the parts of this Broadband assessment is to encourage organizations and individuals to test their internet speeds by doing the quick Broadband speed test at: http://nmbbmapping.org/speedtest/

If you do this speed test at different times of day, and different days, you will get a sense of the variability of your internet service. The speed test data will flow to the New Mexico Broadband Program, the researchers there will map the results, and aggregate them into categories to assess level of services within our Southwest NM communities.

Please be assured your individual address will not be shared! All information will be aggregated into neighborhood blocks to provide a picture of broadband performance.

These data will help in planning and funding requests for building more access to broadband here in our region of Catron, Grant, Hidalgo and Luna counties. AND -- added benefit -- you will be able to see your actual internet speeds and compare them to the speeds you are paying for with your Internet service provider (example, what you are paying for with Century Link, Comcast, or WNM).

So please – click the link http://nmbbmapping.org/speedtest/ and do the simple speed test. Test on different days, and different times over the next week.

If you have questions about the overall New Mexico Broadband Program, read more here:
http://www.doit.state.nm.us/broadband/index.shtml

If you have more questions about the overall New Mexico Broadband Program, please contact:
Gar Clarke
NM Broadband Program Manager
george.clarke@state.nm.us
505.827-1663

If you have questions about the Southwest Region Broadband assessment, please contact:
Lynda Aiman-Smith, Ph.D.
laimansmith@gmail.com