#connectla — Public Fediverse posts

State announces trimmed-down fiber internet expansion

As of June of this year, Louisiana was one of three states that had already awarded grants for deployment of BEAD, the federal government’s broadband internet deployment program.

Known in the state as GUMBO 2.0, the federal grants were the state’s second wave of fiber internet deployment, set to connect the parts of the state missed by the first round of GUMBO program funding.

However, after months of waiting, the federal government declared all states had to re-award the programs, starting a new 60-day consideration process, in which the state would consider cheaper satellite offers along with fiber cables, including from Elon Musk’s Space X. 

Louisiana was the first state in the nation to have its plans for fiber expansion approved by the feds as part of a Biden era grant program. Now, that approval has been revoked by Trump’s secretary of commerce.

Now that process is nearly wrapped, and the new program is looking to spend $250 million less on internet deployment, with more than $7.5 million awarded to Space X.

While the original GUMBO 2.0 was set to cover 140,000 locations, including many of the state’s most remote areas, the newly drafted proposal is set to cover 13,000 fewer locations, with others still to receive coverage, but from less reliable satellite internet. 

The majority of the new internet deployments now mapped at Connect LA are scheduled for completion by 2030 and over three-fourths were awarded to providers headquartered within the state.