Louisiana is expected to provide high-speed internet access to every Louisiana resident by 2028, which is two years earlier than initially expected. Connect LA executive director Veneeth Iyengar says state and parish officials have come together to speed up the process.
“When you bring them all into a room and say, ‘This is what we’re going to do to help solve the divide once and for all in your community, and we have the federal funds to do it,’ then they work with the same level of urgency that we do to solve that problem. That’s why we’re going to be years ahead of schedule,” Iyengar said.
Because so many Louisianans now have access to high-speed internet access, Iyengar says people will be able to choose from multiple internet service providers.
“We’ve introduced a pretty aggressive form of competition, where you might see, in a singular parish, four or five different now internet service providers in a rural parish, that’s now competing for that customer,” Iyengar explained.
Iyengar notes that Louisiana residents could see prices decrease when it comes to paying for higher internet speeds because of the plentiful access in the state.
“You know, 500 megabits download and 500 megabits upload, which is an extremely fast. ISPs are now charging between $55 and $60 for those speeds, which is in certain pairs, much more affordable than what they were paying before,” Iyengar said.
