Government City Services Forms Finance Procurement Education TDS Telecom Agrees to Fiber Network Expansion in Socorro TDS Telecom agrees to fiber network expansion in Socorro, N.M. TDS Telecom (TDS®) has reached agreement with Socorro city officials to build an upgraded communication network capable to deliver up to 1,000Mbps/1Gig internet, TV, and phone service. “We are pleased to take this important first step to provide high speed broadband to the City of Socorro,” said Josh Worrell, business development manager at TDS. “We look forward to partnering with the community to bring TDS’ fast and reliable internet speeds to homes and businesses, connecting them to the world.” TDS commends community leaders for their commitment to creating a smart city for their constituents. “It is with great excitement and pleasure to inform you high-speed broadband services are heading to our community, said Ravi Bhasker, mayor of the City of Socorro. “TDS is stepping up to provide state-of-the-art broadband services to our city. TDS has committed to upgrading their facilities to be capable of supplying our community with broadband speeds that are required in today’s work-from-home, learn-from-home, entertainment at home, and tele-med environments. We are grateful TDS is willing to increase their investment in our community and provide services that we know are critical to the city’s economic growth. I look forward to expanding and continuing our long-term, mutually beneficial relationship with TDS.” Currently, TDS provides TV services to the residents of Socorro. The new project is private sector investment and is currently in the pre-construction phase. Construction on the network is expected to begin in 2022. Once completed the network upgrade would enable 1Gig internet speeds along with TDS’ sophisticated video product and phone service to roughly 5,300 new addresses. “Communications services are vital, particularly now, and customers depend on the speed, service and reliability, and fair prices we deliver,” said Worrell. Along with 1Gig internet speeds, the growth of TDS’ fiber footprint also expands the availability of TDS TV®+. TDS’ cloud-based TV service combines live TV—broadcast channels, regional sports content, and national cable channels—with subscription-based streaming services. TDS TV+ uses smart technology to provide custom recommendations based on a customer’s viewing habits. The service includes a voice-activated remote that allows customers to have quick access to the full functionality of their TV experience. Customers can also stream live TV and recordings on personal devices at home or on-the-go with TV Everywhere. This network expansion offers business customers internet access and transport connections up to 10Gig via dedicated fiber and TDS managedIP, a hosted VoIP communications solution. TDS TV® is also available to business customers in the fiber footprint. 20 thoughts on “TDS Telecom Agrees to Fiber Network Expansion in Socorro” Deanna July 16, 2021 at 9:10 am Great news! Reply Denise Contreras July 16, 2021 at 9:24 am Great! How do we apply? Reply City of Socorro July 16, 2021 at 9:33 am Soon, TDS will announce when customers can apply for service. Reply Melissa Ramsey July 16, 2021 at 9:17 am Would you please get it in Luis Lopez NM all the way to San Antonio NM on State Rd 1. Reply City of Socorro July 16, 2021 at 9:23 am A Broadband Committee with members from the City of Socorro, County of Socorro, New Mexico Tech, and NRAO are working with Finley Engineering and CCG Consulting in securing an ISP along with grant money to bring high speed internet to the entire County of Socorro. Reply Tom Sanderson July 20, 2021 at 12:37 pm Are any Broadband Committee meetings public and presented on Zoom? Reply City of Socorro July 20, 2021 at 3:17 pm The meetings were held using GoToMeeting and were not recorded. The Committee consisted of the following: City of Socorro – Ravi Bhasker, Donald Monette, Polo Pineda Socorro County – Michael Hawkes NRAO – James Robnett, Heather Cochran New Mexico Tech – Daniel Lunceford, Joe Franklin Socorro Consolidated Schools – Jeff Tull Finley Engineering – Andy Heins, Dan Carter CCG Consulting – Doug Dawson Reply TERRY HANCOCK July 16, 2021 at 9:29 am You do not mention cost. What is the cost for someone who just wants internet only? And…is cable to each and every house? Or will there be 5G type repeaters to each neighborhood? Reply City of Socorro July 16, 2021 at 10:11 am TDS is working on pricing, but what I have seen in their other markets in New Mexico I would be able to get 300mg to what I am paying CenturyLink for 20mg. This will be a fiber connection to each home in Socorro. More information will be available soon! Reply TERRY HANCOCK July 16, 2021 at 11:10 am Century Link tops out at 6MHZ in the Socorro area. Where do you get Century Link at 20MHZ? Also, that amount of trenching is unreasonable. We are certainly in a day and age where there should be no wires to the houses. Africa, Indonesia, India and others have skipped the wire and went straight to over the air. I am shocked that there will trenching to each and every home. Reply Sylvain Jones July 20, 2021 at 9:50 am Over the air will never come remotely close to the speeds of over the air. There’s a reason servers and data centers use fiber and copper instead of WiFi. For those countries it makes sense since they cannot afford the fiber infrastructure. If we continue using over the air networking we will never reach nor surpass modern standards of bandwidth that will make Socorro stand out from the rest of New Mexico. Reply Sylvain Jones July 20, 2021 at 12:16 pm *Over the air will never come remotely close to the speeds of fiber. Frances Deters July 16, 2021 at 9:34 am Any idea of costs? Will we be billed through the city? Reply City of Socorro July 16, 2021 at 10:12 am TDS is working on pricing, but what I have seen in their other markets in New Mexico I would be able to get 300mg to what I am paying CenturyLink for 20mg. Billing will be handled through TDS. Reply TERRY HANCOCK July 16, 2021 at 11:27 am I see that my comment about trenching has been removed. If this comment gets removed, I must directly contact Ravi Bhasker. I want to say that, in this day and age, trenching and wiring to each home is antiquated. All third world countries went straight to over the air, and saved the use of poles and cable. I cannot comprehend that there would be trenching of old fashioned wires…to each and every house in Socorro. Reply City of Socorro July 16, 2021 at 11:48 am Yes please talk to the Mayor his email address is rbhasker@socorronm.gov. Reply TERRY HANCOCK July 16, 2021 at 12:02 pm Thanks for leaving this up, as a mere topic. Reply NMT Student July 20, 2021 at 9:07 am Good morning, The harsh reality is that fixed wireless solutions will *never* be able to match the bandwidth (speed) and reliability of a traditional fiber optic network. Trenching and pole hanging of lines is absolutely necessary for Socorro to move into the current century. The fiber optics laid “today” will still be usable for years (decades) to come. Fixed wireless makes sense in those third world countries as there will likely never be grants or funding available for a traditional communications backbone to be built. Wireless technology at this time, even for high-speed carrier-grade back hauls (expensive) can’t even come close to the speeds of new fiber optic runs. Wireless is a band-aid, and is not a replacement for real infrastructure. Across major cities in the United states and even in New Mexico (along highway 60 east for example), there are new fiber trenches being laid constantly. The idea is far from antiquated. These “old fashioned” wires you are referring to do in fact carry light, which moves pretty quickly from one end to the other. Some of the fiber optic cables invented in the early 2000’s still haven’t even seen their bandwidth maxed out (see: OS2 fiber cable bandwidth). Please excuse me if this message comes off as rude, but fiber being laid is exactly what Socorro needs. Reply Tom Sanderson July 20, 2021 at 10:10 am How may fiber trenches are necessary and can the fiber be shared by multiple providers? Could growth minimize trench digging, increase competition, and maybe share installation costs among multiple stakeholders? Reply NMT Student July 20, 2021 at 12:07 pm Hi Tom, The trench itself in my eyes is more of a convenience based on location. A single trench could hold a large amount of unused fiber lines. I think it would personally behoove communities/counties like Socorro to have a fiber optic consortium that different ISPs could come in and lease the lines to customers. This means that all houses would have fiber optic capabilities (provided by way of trenches, power poles, etc) and it could remain provider agnostic. That could be a future depending on how things go with TDS. Utah (around salt lake city) has something like this in place, and it works beautifully. 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