CENTRAL, La. — About 95% of Louisiana currently has access to the internet, according to the governor’s office. Now, Central’s fire department is set to see faster response times after a partnership with the federal government and internet company REV.
“Louisiana is leading the country in bringing broadband to our rural communities,” Landry said.
Fire chief cites impact on response times
Central Fire Chief Stephen Branscum said the connection could affect emergency response.
“It can definitely have a direct impact on response times, especially when you talk about natural disasters when communications are prone to failure in past incidents — this gives you a failsafe where calls are received and transmitted in a timely manner,” Branscum said.
The internet cables are being placed underground, which removes the risk of power lines being knocked down during natural disasters, according to the report.
Rep. Lauren Ventrella, R-Central, said she has heard from constituents about outages.
“My constituents — I heard it, months and months, problems with outages, really for years,” Ventrella said. She added vandalism and copper theft have also been an issue that this project will fix.
Funding and timeline
The project is largely paid for by federal grants and a partnership with internet company REV.
In November, Louisiana became the first state in the nation to receive federal approval of its final BEAD proposal, clearing the way to deploy $1.36 billion in federal broadband funding from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, according to ConnectLA. That allocation is the eighth largest in the nation.
The project will be delivered by REV Fiber and is supported through the Granting Unserved Municipalities Broadband Opportunities 2.0 (GUMBO) program, according to ConnectLA.
The upgrade will bring internet access to 2,840 locations in East Baton Rouge Parish. Of those, 472 will be in Central. Roughly 2,500 will be paid for by the federal BEAD funding; the rest is from REV.
A REV representative said construction will begin in November and last seven to eight months.
Past issues with installation
The rollout of fiber optic cables across the state has faced issues, including in East Feliciana Parish, where a gas line was hit by fiber optic company Swift while installing new internet lines last December.
Veneeth Iyengar, executive director of ConnectLA, said the incident stemmed from a communication issue.
“We need to communicate with them on where this infrastructure is being built and to ensure that all insurance providers are aware of which side of the road they need to be building,” Iyengar said.
Landry said the state is working to connect every home and business by 2028. According to ConnectLA, the East Baton Rouge Parish project will add to other projects statewide aimed at closing the digital divide by 2028, if not sooner.
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