County Broadband Manger Jerry Smith
By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com
Slow internet speeds, service disruptions and total outages are about to be things of the past. Atomic Fiber, Los Alamos County’s community broadband network, will officially start construction with a groundbreaking ceremony at 4 p.m. May 12 near the White Rock Visitor Center.
County Broadband Manager Jerry Smith said the ceremony will kick off phase one construction of the eight-phase project. Phase one will include the construction of the three network hubs. These hubs will be located at the White Rock Fire Station, near the Municipal Building and in the basement of the Los Alamos County Golf Course clubhouse, Smith said. Fiber optic line will also be installed in distribution areas near these hubs.
“We are starting at the center,” Smith explained, and then the project will move further out with each proceeding phase.
According to the County’s website, the eight phases will cover 47 distribution areas.
It is further reported on the website that construction will be a combination of underground and overhead fiber installation, using existing conduits, microtrenching and utility poles. The entire project is estimated to be completed in either 2029 or 2030. Like any County utility project, there will be disruptive activities during construction in each phase in the neighborhood areas where the fiber is being installed, Smith said. However, he said there will be signage and residences directly affected will be notified via door hangars. People are also encouraged to visit https://atomicfiber.net/, which will have information as well as who to contact.
“There will be plenty of notification ahead of time and communication during the actual construction,” Smith said.
He added that while some disruption is expected in the neighborhoods where the work will take place, efforts will be made to make the impact limited. As each construction phase is completed and activated, the area will become operational. Addresses for homes and businesses in completed areas will show up as having service available. Subscribers will choose from a selection of participating internet service providers (ISP) to purchase an internet service package. People may continue service with their existing provider. To sign up for Atomic Fiber, residents may go to https://atomicfiber.net.
Smith said there are four ISPs participating in this initiative. They are Anthem Broadband, LANet, X Mission and Intellipop. The plans anticipated to be available to customers are: 1 Gbps, 2 Gbps, 5 Gbps and 10 Gbps. As far as pricing, Smith said the price range for 1 Gbps is estimated to be from $58 to $65. To express interest in subscribing to internet service on the fiber network, people can go to https://atomicfiber.net/, enter their address and contact information. Once service is available, people are encouraged to register immediately for the network.
“You can sign up for service anytime … but at some point in the future there might be a one-time fee that would be charged, to pay for installation costs,” Smith said. “But everybody that signs up while construction is active, the plan is to have no fee, meaning there are zero installation costs. That’s by design because we want as many people as possible signing up, as soon as possible.”
As far as who owns what, according to https://atomicfiber.net/, the County owns the fiber-optic network including all the infrastructure. The ISP connects to the County network and delivers the service to the customer. The customer can choose which provider and which speed they would like. They can change plans and providers anytime they want.
Getting to this point has been a long time coming. The project initially started with informational townhalls about bringing a fiber network to Los Alamos in 2022. The contract for the project was awarded to Bonfire in November 2024 and the issuance of gross receipts tax bonds for the project was approved in November 2025. A low-level design was approved in January 2026. The project is estimated to cost $35 million.
While the County undertakes its fiber optic network, San Ildefonso Pueblo is implementing its own fiber line, which the County plans to connect to. This project, referred to as the “middle mile” is currently undergoing testing and is expected to be ready by October, Smith said.
Atomic Fiber is expected to bring a lot of benefits to the community, he said.
“This infrastructure investment is going to last a long time. Because we’re using fiber optic cable, the technology is considered future-proofed,” Smith said. “Fiber optic cable networks last from 30 to 50 years.”
Other design features that will be built in are multiple redundant paths rather than just one fiber. A critical feature that all subscribers on the Atomic Fiber network will benefit from automatically is to have more than one internet feed, so that when outages happen, the network will have auto fail-over.
Fiber optic also gives the County an edge on growing technology. For example, Smith said the Los Alamos National Laboratory is wanting to take advantage of quantum computing and quantum networks. As that technology matures, “we will have done our best to have the fiber network in the place in the community so that new technologies can be taken full advantage of.”
AI is of course another big development happening now. Smith said the big question is can a network handle AI and “fiber optic is the best network to be able to run AI full speed.”
Finally, he pointed out having multiple ISPs ensures prices remain competitive and quality stays high. Allen Saenz, owner of LANet, also said there is a lot of value in a fiber optic network.
“This is an important moment for internet service in Los Alamos,” he said. “When Los Alamos Network started providing internet service in 1998, we were helping connect people with speeds like 56K and 1 megabit. Today, the needs of residents, families, students, remote workers, and businesses are completely different. Internet is now an essential part of daily life.
“A community fiber network gives Los Alamos the opportunity to move into the next generation of connectivity, with gigabit speeds, better reliability, and redundancy,” Saenz added. “Fiber is the most future-proof technology we have for internet infrastructure, and it can support the community not just today, but for many years to come.
“We are glad that LANet can be one of the local internet providers using this network to serve homes and businesses. As a locally owned company, our goal is to continue providing better internet service with local care, local support, and a commitment to the future of Los Alamos.”
As the groundbreaking approaches, things look good. Smith said everything is on track, on schedule and on budget. What has been years in the making is coming to fruition.
“This is the time. This is what so many of us have been working towards, to finally get to building out this network …,” Smith said.