New Mexico's Rio Rancho Implements Ubiquitous Wireless Infrastructure

Rio Rancho, N.M., is implementing ubiquitous wireless infrastructure within the city.

The 103 square miles of continuous wireless coverage will result from a collaborative effort of USURF America, and two other technology and telecommunications firms.

The city prioritized several criteria and contractual conditions in evaluating proposals for the project.

The criteria included:

1. The service must be ubiquitous, reaching the most remote parts of the city, with a consistent high-quality end-user experience, and the ISP must demonstrate a commitment to sustain the system indefinitely.



2. The system will be expanded as new developments are built in other parts of the city.



3. The system's backbone, hardware and software should be readily scalable and upgradable to address the city's growth and expanding demand.
   

The proposed citywide network will impact Rio Rancho in numerous areas:

1. The city will be identified nationally as the area to which forward-thinking and high-tech businesses will want to locate, with a public/private partnership model that other communities will emulate.



2. The state of New Mexico will have incentive to focus on Rio Rancho for locating facilities and projects, in conjunction with the state Land Office and other state agencies pursuing economic development.



3. The city's outlying neighborhoods will no longer have to wait for underground infrastructure development to bring them state-of-the-art technology.



4. Revenues and gross receipts will be generated from entirely new activity.

"We will begin beta testing in May and expect to be fully operational by the launch date set for June 26, 2004," said Ken Upcraft, executive vice president of USURF.