A $3 million project will bring high-speed Internet to some of St. Louis’ most rural neighborhoods. Tammany

St. Tammany Parish will make a $3 million investment to provide high-speed Internet in an area between Covington and Folsom, part of a plan to dramatically expand Internet access in rural areas throughout the North Shore and the whole state.

With $2 million in federal funding through the U.S. Federal Reserve, President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic-era stimulus package and an additional $1 million from telecommunications company AT&T, the plan adds miles of fiber optic cable along Louisiana 25 between Covington and Folsom. pipe super fast internet in rural areas.

Once complete, residents of 883 homes that currently have limited Internet access will have access to the AT&T Internet network and download speeds of up to five gigabytes per second to the Internet fast enough to download a movie in seconds.

In this fast-paced world, it has never been more important for all of our citizens to have access to reliable, high-speed Internet, said Parish President St. Tammany, Mike Cooper. With this investment, our citizens will be able to connect with their loved ones, healthcare providers, customers, schools and much more.

People in the service area can expect to pay about $80 a month for AT&T’s standard plan. Some new Internet subscribers may qualify for a reduced rate of $30 per month.

The parish described the project as Phase 1 of a series of efforts to provide faster internet to the parish’s rural residents. But the parish chose the area along Louisiana 25 that will get high-speed Internet first based on an extensive analysis of where they could provide expanded access to the most people.

The high-priority areas were kind of thrown at us, said W. Grant Black III, director of technology at Parish St. Tammany. This was the highest priority area.

While this project will be funded by federal and private investment, the state of Louisiana has a plan to dramatically expand Internet access in rural areas. Black said the parish is seeking additional grants to expand Internet access to areas around Lacombe and Hickory in the coming years, but by 2029, any areas not covered will be covered by the state.

Black also pointed out that most internet cables will be buried underground. This should help the network be resilient after hurricanes and other severe weather.

The lack of internet access in rural areas is not limited to St. Tammany. Telecommunications companies have been reluctant to invest in laying fiber optic cables, the gold standard for high-speed Internet connectivity, in sparsely populated parts of the state, which tend to lose jobs and residents. Federal and state programs are looking to provide incentives for them to do so.

In 2022, then-governor John Bel Edwards announced a $130 million investment, thanks to a grant through the American Rescue Plan, to provide Internet to up to 66,000 rural residents through the Granting Unserved Municipalities Broadband Opportunities, or GUMBO, program.