Homes and businesses across Albuquerque could soon have access to faster internet thanks to an out-of-state utility company.
Alongside City of Albuquerque officials, Lubbock, Texas-based Vexus Fiber on Tuesday announced plans to start building a fiber-to-the-home internet network across the city. Once completed the network will provide internet speeds up to 2,000 megabits per second, according to a news release from the City.
Prices for Vexus' fiber-to-the-home internet would range from $39.99 per month for 150 megabits per second to $89.99 per month for 2,000 megabits per second, according to information from the company.
Vexus plans to roll out the network over time across different parts of the city, starting in an area north of Central Avenue and west of Interstate 25. Service will be available in this area in early 2023, according to the release.
City officials didn't provide a specific timeframe for when service could be available in other parts of Albuquerque.
The network buildout could lead to the creation of more than 200 construction jobs over the next five years, according to estimates provided in the news release. About 150 of those jobs would be permanent, and Vexus' total investment in building out the network across Albuquerque will be $250 million, according to the release.
Catherine Nicolaou, the broadband program manager for the City of Albuquerque, joined representatives from Vexus Fiber and the City of Albuquerque at a groundbreaking Tuesday. She said the fiber network creates greater "equality of opportunity" for Albuquerque residents.
"I think that's where the heart of this is," she said regarding Tuesday's announcement.
"It really is a game changer for us," Nicolaou continued. "We can compete in ways that maybe we haven't before, we can level up in ways that we haven't before and we can have opportunities that we haven't had before. So it's really exciting."
Then there's the additional competition among companies that service the area.
"The private sector telecom companies, all of them in this market, will hopefully have better customer service because they'll have to compete with each other at some point," Nicolaou said. "They'll all offer the highest quality infrastructure or connection that they can, and then prices will come down. So competition is a big [benefit] that we can look forward to."
Led by CEO Jim Gleason, Vexus targets mid-sized cities for expansion and has networks in Texas and Louisiana. The company first announced plans to build out a fiber network in Albuquerque in October 2021.
Over the summer Vexus named a regional vice president of operations in New Mexico to lead the company's efforts in this state, which include expanding fiber internet networks into Santa Fe and Las Cruces alongside Albuquerque.
Vexus plans to invest $35 million to build out its Santa Fe network, which could bring 85 to 90 new jobs to the Santa Fe area.
Kevin Folk, Vexus' regional vice president of operations in New Mexico, said in a Dec. 14 email to Business First that the company has a franchise agreement with Las Cruces and is starting to design its network in the southern New Mexico city.
In June, Vexus merged with MetroNet, a fiber broadband provider based in Evansville, Indiana, that has a presence in the Midwest and the southeastern U.S. The two companies shared a common investor — Oak Hill Capital Partners, located in Connecticut, New York and California.
Vexus, formerly called NTS Communications, was previously acquired by Vast Broadband, which announced the close of the deal in September 2019. Oak Hill Capital Partners and Pamlico Capital led a recapitalization of Vast Broadband and NTS, according to the Vast announcement.
