With $2 million in federal funding through the federal American Rescue Plan, President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion pandemic-era stimulus package, and an additional $1 million from telecommunications company AT&T, the plan adds miles of fiber-optic cables along Louisiana 25 between Covington and Folsom that will pipe super-fast Internet to rural neighborhoods.
Once completed, residents in 883 homes that currently have limited Internet access will get access to AT&T's Internet network and download speeds of up to five gigabytes per second — Internet fast enough to download a movie in seconds.
"In this rapidly developing world, it has never been more important for all of our citizens to have access to reliable, high-speed Internet," said St. Tammany Parish President Mike Cooper. "With this investment, our citizens will be able to connect to their loved ones, health care providers, customers, schools and so much more."
The people in the area served can expect to pay around $80 per month for AT&T's standard plan. Some new Internet subscribers may qualify for a reduced rate of $30 per month.
The parish described the project as Phase 1 of a series of efforts to provide faster Internet to the parish's rural residents. But the parish chose the area along Louisiana 25 that will get fast Internet first based on an extensive analysis of where they could provide expanded access to the most people.
"The high priority areas kind of jumped out at us," said W. Grant Black III, St. Tammany Parish's director of technology. "This was the highest priority area."
While this project will be funded by federal and private investments, the state of Louisiana has a plan to dramatically expand Internet access to rural areas. Black said that the parish is seeking other grants to expand Internet access to the areas around Lacombe and Hickory in the next few years, "But by 2029, any area ... that isn't covered will be covered by the state."
Black also stressed that most of the Internet cables will be buried underground. That should help the network be resilient after hurricanes and other severe weather.
The lack of Internet access in rural areas isn't limited to St. Tammany. Telecommunications companies have been reluctant to invest in laying fiber-optic cable — the gold standard for high-speed Internet connectivity — in the sparsely-populated parts of the state, which tend to be losing jobs and residents. Federal and state programs are seeking to provide incentives for them to do so.
In 2022, then-Gov. John Bel Edwards announced an $130 million investment, thanks to a grant through the American Rescue Plan, to provide Internet to up to 66,000 rural residents through the Granting Unserved Municipalities Broadband Opportunities, or GUMBO, program.
©2024 The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
