A Public Service of Santa Fe Community College
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Summit Held In New Mexico To Bring Internet To All Americans

 Assistant US Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson
Kevin Meerschaert
/
KSFR-FM
Assistant US Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson speaks on Wednesday while US Senator Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) listens during a summit on broadband expansion at the Buffalo Thunder Resort north of Santa Fe.

The U.S. must strive to make sure everybody in the country has access to the internet that is reliable and affordable.
That was the message at a conference on Internet access held Wednesday at the Buffalo Thunder Resort.

The Internet for All Initiative is part of the Biden Administration’s bipartisan Infrastructure Law that was passed in 2021. It allocates $65 billion in funding  to help ensure that every American has access to reliable high-speed internet through an investment in broadband infrastructure deployment.

The legislation will also help lower prices for internet service and help close the digital divide, so that more Americans can afford internet access.  There is also a heavy emphasis on bringing reliable web services to New Mexico’s tribes and pueblos.

During the conference US Senator Ben Ray Lujan spoke with Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson to talk about where New Mexico stands regarding more internet access.

Davidson says he sees internet expansion as the major infrastructure project of our time.

“It’s essential for access to jobs, access to education, access to health care, (and) access to justice,” he said. “Here we are in 2023 and there are still millions of people across America, hundreds of thousands of people in New Mexico who do not have that basic broadband access that they need to thrive in the modern digital economy.”

Sen. Lujan says one only needs to look at what happened during COVID when students across the country had to take classes virtually but many didn’t have the internet access they needed to see how essential it has become to bring quality internet access to rural areas across New Mexico and the rest of the country.