State broadband office helps resolve frequent broadband blackouts in Gallup and McKinley County
March 4, 2025
Office to provide funding in new partnership to fix region’s outages
SANTA FE – Today, the Office of Broadband Access and Expansion (OBAE) announced it is playing a key role to finally solve a decade-long broadband outage issue in Gallup and McKinley County.
OBAE and Ethos Broadband, a rural telecommunications company based in Yatahey, N.M., have signed an agreement aimed at establishing resiliency in Gallup and McKinley County. OBAE will be paying $500,000 through the Statewide Education Network (SEN) in equipment to ensure Ethos Broadband’s construction of redundant connectivity and, in turn, stop broadband blackouts.
OBAE has documented that during the past 10 years there have been eleven blackouts of broadband service on the sole fiber broadband connection into Gallup. Ethos Broadband, however, has built a separate feed through Gallup to serve the Navajo Nation, and the new equipment from SEN will be used by Ethos Broadband to strengthen its connectivity. This will enable Ethos Broadband to act as a redundant line to the existing fiber as a back-up connection should service be cut.