Bandwidth: The Name of the Connectivity Game Is; If your connecting to the Internet, faster is indeed better. But New Mexico, with some exceptions, isn't quite state of the art

New Mexico Business Journal, Dec, 2001 by Paul Krza

NOT THAT LONG AGO, WHEN FOLKS talked about getting connected, it was more about how to move themselves and their goods on highways and skyways. Now, though still essential, that's all low-tech, clunky physical stuff. Today it's "connectivity"--getting plugged into exotic electronic pipelines filed with data and information--and Opportunities.

"People are starting to take it for granted," observes Marianne Granoff, chair of the New Mexico Internet Providers Association. "Now, if somebody asks you for your email address and you don't have one, they're surprised."

But email is only part of the big electronic picture that also includes an array of graphic-rich, real-time enlightenment. "Electronic ordering and electronic payment are two of the fastest growing segments of Internet use," Granoff says. "Online catalogs with search capabilities allow anyone, anywhere to have access to a company's products. Your business can be anywhere."

So the potential is huge--but only if you get the right connections. And in New Mexico, that may not be easy. First, there are the realities in our Land of Enchantment. "We're a poor, large and geographically rugged state," notes Kevin Donovan, a vice president for business development with Oso Grande Technologies in Albuquerque. "It's a lot easier when you're like a Rhode Island--small, pretty well-off and flat. It's much tougher here."

As a result, getting "affordable, high-speed connectivity," the goal of the non-profit Connect New Mexico, "depends on where you are in New Mexico," says Judy Beckes Talcott, president of the organization. At first blush, it would appear the best connected would be the big population center in Albuquerque and the worst-connected would be the Navajo Nation, where in some areas phone lines aren't even installed. But "even in Albuquerque, some people don't have access," Beckes Talcott said. So it is around New Mexico. Many areas have only barely adequate connections while only a few have top-of-the-line access.

The heart of the game in connectivity is in "bandwidth," or the amount of information that can be moved through an electronic pipeline. The more bandwidth you have, the Internet folks will tell you, the more stuff--complicated graphics or video conferencing, for example--you can download or upload, and how fast you can do it.

For starters, getting plugged in usually begins with the phone company that provides service in your area. In New Mexico, the telephone pie is sliced up among Qwest, which has most of the customers in the most-populated areas; Valor Telecommunications, the second-largest phone service provider, and eleven other much smaller companies that serve rural areas. The phone companies own the copper and fiber that links most of the people, businesses and government to the Internet, either through one of the 50 to 60 Internet service providers in New Mexico, one of the national access services like America Online, or through their own company connections. The local, independently owned ISPs provide connectivity to about 60 percent of New Mexicans, says Granoff, who works for ZiaNet, the largest of the services with about 25,000 customers.

New Mexico Qwest Vice President John Badel says the company offers DSL service--considered a fast connection to the Internet--to about 75 percent of its customers. It's available in Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Santa Fe, White Rock, Gallup, Farmington, Roswell, Taos and Alamogordo, he said. Other areas can get ISDN connections, not quite as fast and with other limitations. Getting DSL to other areas depends "purely on economic reasons," Badel said. "When you're talking about the lack of availability of high speed services, you're talking about the affordability of the company to provide them," he said. Expensive DSL "module" costs at central offices in rural, low-population areas simply can't be recouped over time, Badel said. But the company is looking at less-costly "alternative technologies" that could speed access in those areas, he added.

In the areas served by Valor--the state's smaller cities like Carlsbad, Hobbs, Truth or Consequences and Espanola--the company doesn't offer DSL, says Dave Duran, community relations director for Valor in New Mexico. The company is testing DSL in its service territories in Oklahoma and Texas and might begin installing in some areas by next year, he said. "But we do have high-speed bandwidth T-l and T-3 lines," Duran said, and the company is also "looking at" satellite and wireless technologies to deliver services in other areas.

Granoff said surprisingly many of the smaller phone companies that serve the more rural areas of New Mexico do offer DSL service, using less-costly smaller modules. She cited tiny Des Moines in Union County, which has DSL delivered in fiber optic lines. Another factor is that some of the small telephone companies are owned by cooperatives, which are less motivated by profit ad more consumer oriented, she said.

Still, even though DSL is "a good thing," it's "not particularly robust technology," Donovan says. Trying to operate a business with high bandwidth demand out of Des Moines for example wouldn't be practical without significant upgrades, he said.