San Ildefonso Pueblo has received more than $1 million in stimulus money to expand wireless services in the Española and Pojoaque valleys.

The San Ildefonso Pueblo Enterprise Corporation plans to use the $1.2 million in stimulus grant and loan money to install four cell towers powered by solar panels, plus buy the networking equipment to serve an additional 2,405 homes through Tewa Communications. SIPEC's chief operating officer Laurence Peña thinks ultimately the towers will serve even more residents. "In reality, after looking at the network and our analysis, we will be a very major player for broadband in the valleys," Peña said.

Tewa Communications is one of seven businesses run through SIPEC. Among the others are a cultural-immersion program for soldiers headed to Iraq and Afghanistan, a network-encryption service and a custodial service for Los Alamos National Laboratory. The wireless service was formed in 2006 with a U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Utility Service grant to provide wireless service to pueblo residents. Currently two towers are providing service to 160 customers with 340 more in the service area, Peña said.

The four new towers will go in locations within the pueblo's boundaries at sites approved by the San Ildefonso Pueblo Council, of which Peña is a third-term member. The service will be available to pueblo and nonpueblo residents in Nambé Pueblo, Pojoaque Pueblo, Tesuque Pueblo, La Mesilla, El Rancho and Cuyamungue.

The towers and locations are as follows:

• Rio Arriba Tower, 195 feet tall at the northeast corner of San Ildefonso Pueblo land.

• Pojoaque Tower, 60 feet tall overlooking Pojoaque Valley.

• Edges Tower, 80 feet tall on top of a mesa overlooking Santa Clara and Española.

• North Santa Fe County tower, 500 feet tall at southeast corner of San Ildefonso Pueblo.

Peña said he's talked with Santa Fe County about the possibility of using the tallest tower to host communications for emergency services.

Tewa Communications partnered with Motorola Canopy to create the broadband network, operating on Motorola's 900 megahertz platform. The pueblo's competitors in the valleys are Windstream, Qwest, CNSP and Chimayó Red, a new wireless service out of Española. Still, Peña thinks, "They'll be hard pressed to deliver what we're going to be able to deliver." Peña said he can't elaborate until more details of the service are complete in a few weeks.

Wireless remains an industry unregulated by the Federal Communications Corporation or the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission. The FCC opened an investigation into wireless industry practices in August.

Peña said Tewa Communications answers to the pueblo.

"Our main goal is for the surrounding communities to have a choice when it comes to accessing broadband Internet," said Peña, who used to work for Verizon Wireless and Sprint.

"We're excited," he added. "It's going to be fun."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture notified the pueblo recently of the award through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

For more information, visit www.tewacom.com.

Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.