Conejos and Alamosa counties in Colorado’s San Luis Valley are set to receive a chunk of a $401 million disbursement from the federal government for broadband expansion.

The Thursday announcement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture said the San Luis Valley Rural Electric Cooperative will receive nearly $2 million to deploy a fiber-to-the-premises network that will bring in high-speed internet to 129 people, eight businesses, a public school and 20 farms.

The funding comes from the USDA’s ReConnect Program, which provides loans and grants for the costs of construction, improvement, or acquisition of facilities and equipment needed to provide broadband service in eligible rural areas. The money headed to SLVREC is 100% grant funded because it addresses the programs’ requirement for socially vulnerable communities.

Awardees must commit to a 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload requirement in all proposed service areas, according to the USDA.

The state’s broadband map shows that much of Conejos and Alamosa counties have access to high-speed broadband service, but areas adjacent to the Sangre de Cristo mountains in northern Alamosa County and portions of western and southeastern Conejos County have no access at all. In other parts of both counties, the only service available is at minimal download speeds of 10 Mbps or less.

“Connectivity is critical to economic success in rural America,” said Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. “The internet is vital to our growth and continues to act as a catalyst for our prosperity. From the farm to the school, from households to international markets, connectivity drives positive change in our communities. The investments I am announcing today will help 31,000 people and businesses in large and diverse regions across the country access new and critical opportunities.”

USDA plans to make additional investments for rural high-speed internet later this summer, including tapping into funding from the President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which will provide a $65 billion investment to expand affordable, high-speed internet to all communities across the U.S.

In 2012, SLVREC decided to invest in fiber for more efficient electrical operations. By 2015, they were ready to begin offering broadband through a subsidiary, Ciello. The co-op serves 8,000 square miles in the valley, primarily providing service to farms, ranches and homes outside of town limits. 

CEO Loren Howard said they have 7,000 current broadband subscribers across seven counties in the valley. The grants will address “two areas that are hard to reach, and that takes a lot of infrastructure to get to them,” Howard said.

In Alamosa County, the service area to be covered by the grant will run along the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and into the Great Sand Dunes National Monument, Howard told Colorado Politics, as well as in south and eastern Conejos County.

The co-op has already gotten a grant a couple of years ago from the Colorado Broadband Office that helped expand broadband service in the western part of the valley, Howard added.

“We’re very appreciative of those grants,” Howard said. “In today’s world, that’s very important.”