You may have recently seen the white trucks of RLM Underground installing bright orange cable for Patagonia’s new broadband service. On January 21 at noon, the Valley Telecom Group and the Town of Patagonia hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony to mark the coming of broadband. Mayor Andy Wood officially welcomed the new fiber optic high speed internet service to the town.
Residential and business customers can begin signing up for broadband with Valley TeleCom now. You must live or have a place of business within the Town limits to be eligible. For residential customers, the cost for the service begins at $64.95/month for 100mbps download/20 mbps upload speeds. Three higher speeds are available at $84.95, $104.95 and $124.95/ mo. Phone service is included in all three higher cost packages. Businesses are offered a variety of services and costs are commensurate with services provided.
There is no cost to the residential customer for bringing cable to their house. It is fully covered and split equally between Valley TeleCom Group and federal grants. The source of federal grants is the American Plan Rescue Act, passed in 2021, and those dollars are dispersed to the state, then to the County, and finally to the Town.
Valley TeleCom projects that the first residential hook ups will begin by June of 2025. The Patagonia schools have had broadband for two years. Their service provider is also Valley Telecom.
If you live in the area, but outside the town of Patagonia, there will be another round of funding this spring to bring fiber optic high speed internet to additional rural areas in Arizona. The additional federal money comes from the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act passed in 2023.
Valley TeleCom will be hiring a full-time technician to support installation and ongoing services for the Towns of Patagonia and Tombstone. Job applications are available on their website vtc.net.
You can sign up for the new internet service by calling 800-421-5711 or completing an application online at Valley TeleCom’s website vtc.net.