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AT&T Louisiana president David Aubrey and former Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards at an announcement of reaching 500,000 subscribers in the state. Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save In June of this year, the Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate caught up with David Aubrey, the president of AT&T Louisiana, as he was on his way to check out a Bossier City site where AT&T was installing some of more than $2.1 billon in wired and wireless Internet improvements the company was making in the state.
More broadband is now coming, thanks to federal dollars. When all is said and done, according to a release Monday from the offices of U.S.
Senator Bill Cassidy, R-La. and Governor Jeff Landry, the state will have deployed $1.355 billion in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment, or BEAD, funding to support broadband access to underserved areas.
The program, called Gumbo 2.0, looks to expand fiber connectivity to "approximately 140,000 locations across the state, supporting 100,000 households, 35,000 small businesses, and 4,000 community anchor institutions such as public safety locations, schools, and hospitals." These broadband investments will drive significant economic growth for the state, creating 8,000 to 10,000 new jobs and $2 to $3 billion in new revenue for Louisiana companies, according to the release from Cassidy and Landry.
Under BEAD, AT&T was awarded nearly $55 million to run fiber to 20,000 additional residential and business locations in the state. T-Mobile, REV and Swfyt Fiber were chosen to receive nearly $450 million through the same program. File photo The combined investment, said the Swyft/REV/T-Mobile news release, will lead to the largest broadband expansion program in Louisiana's history.
The state also becomes the first to distribute BEAD funding through the Gumbo 2.0 program. "This historic investment in our state's broadband infrastructure will transform communities across Louisiana, providing the connectivity our residents need to thrive in the modern economy," Landry said in a statement.
Cassidy and Landry announced the launch of GUMBO 2.0 in August. The Louisiana money, secured by Cassidy as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, is larger than the amounts of only six other states, all of which have a larger population than Louisiana.
To date, BEAD has provided $42.45 billion nationwide to expand high-speed Internet access by funding planning, infrastructure deployment, and adoption programs. While negotiating the bill, Cassidy said he pushed for a formula that would ensure the funding was directed to areas that lacked access to high-speed internet.
The formula is based on the number of unserved and underserved broadband recipients in each state as determined by updated broadband internet coverage maps. The Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate contacted the Louisiana Office of Broadband Development and Connectivity to ask about additional investment in NW Louisiana. We were told that "Northern Louisiana will benefit but they don't have the particulars yet as there will be a number of rounds of funding.
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