Louisiana Breaks Ground on Nation's Largest BEAD-Funded Broadband Build
BATON ROUGE — Governor Jeff Landry joined ConnectLA, REV Fiber and state and local leaders on October 7 in Central for the groundbreaking of the country's largest broadband build to date funded by the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.
Delivered by REV Fiber, the project will bring reliable high-speed internet to 2,840 locations in East Baton Rouge Parish — roughly 2,500 paid for by federal BEAD funding, the rest by REV. Supported through the Granting Unserved Municipalities Broadband Opportunities 2.0 (GUMBO 2.0) program, construction is expected to begin in November and last seven to eight months.
Louisiana was the first state in the nation to receive federal approval of its final BEAD proposal, unlocking $1.36 billion in federal broadband funding, the eighth-largest allocation nationally. The state's goal is to connect every home and business by 2028, if not sooner, closing the digital divide.
Sources: Benton Institute for Broadband & Society; WAFB
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：路易斯安那州议会大厦（巴吞鲁日）。摄影：Chrismiceli，CC0，来源：Wikimedia Commons
