A ribbon-cutting ceremony took place this week at 21st Century Public Academy in Albuquerque, the first school to connect to the network.
Enabled by nearly 900 miles of fiber from the telecommunications company Lumen Technologies, the program aims to link all public schools in the state to SEN by 2027. Schools can join for free and use the network’s internal system to share online tools and resources, according to a news release from the New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion (OBAE). The announcement said it’s an effort to bridge the digital divide in a sparsely populated state with numerous remote rural and tribal schools.
“SEN will allow the delivery of a technology-rich curriculum that, in turn, will open the doors to a world of business and career opportunities,” SEN Broadband and Technology Manager Ovidiu Viorica said in a public statement.
Lumen completed the $4.3 million first phase of its three-year contract with OBAE in July, initially linking 30 schools that serve around 15,000 students. The company provides “high-capacity, low-latency fiberoptic wave technology, backbone circuits, network nodes and cost-effective centralized network design, management and support to the new school-focused broadband network,” according to a news release Thursday from Lumen.
The company’s news release says the massive fiber rollout in New Mexico will “lay the foundation for a state-coordinated middle-mile network,” referring to the infrastructure necessary to connect people in rural areas to the Internet. Middle-mile connectivity is key to closing the digital divide, according to Michelle Watson, vice president of state, local and education business for Lumen.
“Lumen is taking an innovative middle-mile approach to addressing digital inclusion and creating pioneering public-private partnerships that help bridge the digital divide,” Watson said in a public statement.
To pay for the program, New Mexico is using a combination of state and federal dollars, including funding from the Federal Communications Commission’s E-rate program, which helps schools pay for telecommunications and Internet services.
SEN employees will supervise daily operations and cybersecurity for the school broadband network, supplying IT expertise to schools throughout the state.
