Pelican State News

BATON ROUGE, La. – In case you missed it, on July 6, Gov. John Bel Edwards broke ground on the largest GUMBO project in the state that will bring high-speed affordable and reliable internet to 9,140 households and 535 small businesses in Avoyelles Parish.

Later that day in Baton Rouge, he announced a partnership with EducationSuperHighway to help promote the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), a long-term benefit to help lower-income families pay for high-speed internet.

See below for key excerpts:

NOLA.com: 9,000 houses, 535 businesses: Huge Louisiana high-speed internet project gets underway

By James FinnJuly 7, 2023

BATON ROUGE, La. (NOLA.com) – Louisiana's effort to expand broadband access in rural areas advanced on Thursday with the groundbreaking of the state's biggest high-speed internet project yet.

The project will bring cable internet to 9,140 households and 535 small businesses in Avoyelles Parish, according to Gov. John Bel Edwards' office — the largest investment to date under the state's Granting Unserved Municipalities Broadband Opportunities program, dubbed GUMBO.

Set for completion in summer 2024, the Avoyelles project will cost just over $20 million. Federal Treasury Department grants will fund about $9.7 million of that cost, while the rest will be covered by Swyft Telecom, the cable internet provider that is completing the work, said Veneeth Iyengar, executive director for the state's broadband growth effort. 

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State officials have been traveling from town to town, talking with local leaders about how to best meet communities’ broadband needs across three areas: Things like access, affordability, and knowing how to best use digital tools.

After the groundbreaking in Bunkie, Edwards returned to Baton Rouge for an event promoting the Affordable Connectivity Program, an initiative launched in 2021 that is aimed at paying lower-income families' internet costs. The $14.2 billion federal broadband benefit is funded by the COVID-era Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and gives eligible households a discount of up to $30 per month — or up to $75 per month for households on qualifying Tribal lands — plus a one-time $100 discount toward a laptop, desktop computer, or tablet.

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All told, the state will receive more than $1.87 billion in federal cash for broadband expansion over the next five years under grants from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Federal Communications Commission, U.S. Treasury and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

ACCESS THE FULL STORY AT NOLA.com

Original source can be found here.