Student Connect Program

Free broadband for student and faculty households in the Deming Public Schools community

Find out if you qualify

If you have a student enrolled in Deming Public Schools - or you work for the district as faculty or staff - your household may be eligible for free broadband through the Student Connect program. To find out, contact the Desert Mesh team and we'll check whether your address is on the eligible list.

Ready to check? Reach out to Desert Mesh and we can let you know right away whether your household qualifies for free Student Connect service.

Contact Desert Mesh

How eligibility is determined

The Student Connect program is funded by the State of New Mexico through its Office of Broadband Access and Expansion (OBAE), using dollars the New Mexico Legislature set aside specifically to connect students and school staff who lack adequate internet at home. Eligibility is not based on a single factor. It requires meeting all of the criteria below.

Public-school connection

A student must be currently enrolled in Deming Public Schools, or an adult in the household must be employed by the district as faculty or staff.

Address classified as unserved or underserved

The household's physical address must appear on a state-maintained list of locations that do not currently have access to broadband internet at speeds of at least 100 Mbps download / 20 Mbps upload. This classification is based on federal broadband data and is determined by the State — not by Desert Mesh or Mycelia Foundation.

Verified by the New Mexico Public Education Department (PED)

OBAE works directly with the PED to cross-reference student enrollment records with the list of unserved and underserved addresses. The resulting list of eligible households is then provided to Mycelia Foundation. We do not have access to individual student records and we cannot add or remove addresses from this list.

In short: the State identifies the addresses, the State verifies the students, and the State provides the final eligibility list. Desert Mesh's role is to build the network and deliver the service to those households.

If you don't qualify for free service

We understand that not qualifying can be disappointing. Reliable internet matters for every family. Because this grant is funded by the State, the eligibility rules are written into a binding agreement that Mycelia Foundation is required to follow. The program provides several hundred eligible student households with free broadband service through 2029, and every dollar must be spent according to the terms of the grant.

That said, it is Mycelia Foundation and Desert Mesh's mission to increase access to high-speed broadband in unserved and underserved communities throughout New Mexico. To that end, we will be offering a steeply discounted rate for households with students that do not qualify directly for the Student Connect program. The infrastructure being built for Student Connect is also expanding Desert Mesh's overall network, which means more options for more families in the Deming area.

We're here for the community

Mycelia Foundation is a New Mexico nonprofit, and Desert Mesh is our community broadband network. We are deeply committed to expanding internet access across southern New Mexico. If you have questions about this program, the discounted rate, or other connectivity options in the Deming area, please don't hesitate to reach out to the Desert Mesh team.

Get in touch

This project is supported, in whole or in part, by the State of New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion.