[Editor's Note: This is part 2 of a multi-article series on the Grant County Commission special meeting on Sept. 26, 2023, which lasted almost three hours. This one continues with a presentation from WNM Communications.]

By Mary Alice Murphy

The article continues the Grant County Commission special meeting on Sept. 26, 2023. The second presentation at the meeting came from WNM Communications representatives to answer questions from commissioners on the projects WNMC plans to expand broadband service to Fierro and Pinos Altos.

WNM Communications General Manager Daniel Meszler and Director of Operations Wayne Baxter represented the company.

Meszler said: "We appreciate your cooperation to get fiber optic to Fierro. We looked at fiber optic for Pinos Altos, but it would be prohibitively expensive, at least $2 million plus just to get it up the mountain without distribution to the residents. That's why we proposed the fixed wireless to the folks up there. With that, we just want to see if you have any questions about the fixed wireless."

District 4 Commissioner Billy Billings said he would like to know about the plan for Pinos Altos.

Baxter replied: "It would require a tower about 100-120 feet high somewhere around the volunteer fire department up there. That height could service most of P.A. We would also have to increase the size to probably 150 feet of our tower that is already on P.A. Mountain or Telegraph Hill, whatever they call it. We're on the lower part. We would have to extend the height or build a new tower so the signal could go back down the hill to the tower near town."

Meszler said it would basically be a relay tower closer to where the fire department is. "It could even be a 150-foot or taller tower."

Baxter said: "The higher we can get it the better the service will be."

"In a perfect world, we would love to get fiber to everyone," Meszler said. "But it's just not practical or cost efficient. I'm using fixed wireless at my house, and I'm getting around 100 Mbps (megabytes per second) download, so pretty decent."

Baxter said: "We will use licensed frequencies. They will be 5G capable. You can get possibly 200-300 Mbps download and 40 upload with these. It will be dependent on your visibility to the tower. Trees and buildings may be in the way, and if you live in the canyon, you may not get anything, so we will not say it will hit 100 percent of the people, but we will design it to hit the vast majority of the people up there."

Billings asked how many residents of Pinos Altos are unserved.

Baxter said he thought the majority were not unserved, but underserved. "They are getting some speed, but it's under the 100 [for download] and 20 [for upload] speeds that the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) established. I suspect quite a few up there are on Starlink now, having been frustrated by the slow speeds."

Billings said: "So CenturyLink is the main provider up there?" which they confirmed.

"So someone up there told me someone is building a 5G tower," Billings said.

Baxter and Meszler alternating comments said: "It might be us. We are not aware of anyone else doing that. There might be cellular operations like Verizon, but speeds on cell phones aren't great either. They tend to be highly variable in speeds. And they aren't made for residences."

Billings asked how WNM would deliver the speeds to customers.. Baxter said it would be a purchase and they would have a CP radio on a pole that goes on the roof."

Meszler said it would be similar to some of the plans WNM offers in Silver City starting out at $40 a month and "it goes up from there depending on what speed tier they choose."

District 5 Commissioner Harry Browne said they had mentioned the use of the tower on Radio Tower Hill and Baxter confirmed it. "It would take the signal from the tower at the fire station to our tower on the hill and back down.

Browne said the proposal they made to the county said that a tower would be placed near Sanctuary Road.

Baxter said that could possibly be an extension to WNM's tower in P.A. for backhaul.

Sanctuary Road is where the CenturyLink fiber ends.

Baxter said they would use their own tower and not use CenturyLink fiber. He said TWN also has a presence in P.A., but it's 10-20 mbps for download.

Meszler said WNM would offer much greater speeds.

Billings said Kurt Albershardt of Mimbres Communications also provides service.

Meszler confirmed that they had had conversations with him, and he believes that Mimbres Communications gets its backhaul from WNM Communications. "I don't know what his service offerings are. I can call him and ask him."

Browne said he would like to know that what WNM is offering would be significantly better than what Mimbres offers.

Meszler said he would talk to Albershardt. "We would like to know, too."

Browne said some 5G Ericsson equipment has been installed on Crown Castle Hill, but nobody seems to know who put it there.

"We have Ericsson gear up there, too," Meszler said.

Browne said: "Let's pretend there is no service in P.A.. Do you have a count of how many residences you would reach?"

Meszler said they they had done a propagation study, but "I didn't bring the house count with me. But we can get it to you."

District 1 Commissioner and Chair Chis Ponce said: "Listening to everything, maybe we need to look at this further down the road and keep working on it. Maybe there's another grant that would help that area. I thought I would throw that out for the public."

The next presentation will come from Silver Consolidated Schools Superintendent William Hawkins on the state of the schools' finances and facilities.

To read the first article in the series, please visit https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/80558-grant-county-commission-held-special-meeting-092623-part-1 .