BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – Governor Jeff Landry on Monday unveiled a plan called Gumbo 2.0, which aims to expand broadband internet access to 140,000 locations across the state using $1.355 billion, a plan issued out of Washington under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that must be implemented by the end of the year.
The first phase of the program provided internet access to nearly 80,000 locations in Louisiana through grant funding from the American Rescue Act, and the second phase now includes internet access to 100,000 households, 35,000 businesses, and 4,000 institutions, including schools, hospitals and law enforcement agencies.
“This is a great, bright spot, a time when Louisiana was ahead of the curve,” said Governor Landry.
The program is expected to create 8,000-10,000 new jobs, boost GDP growth by $1.3 billion, and generate up to $3 billion in new revenues from state-owned enterprises.
“We’re the first state in the country to be fully approved, and by fully approved I mean we received all of the federal approvals from December of last year all the way through June and up until today to actually launch the program,” said Benise Iyengar, executive director of Connect Louisiana.
Some rural areas have struggled to get companies to bid on the work, and the governor said he wants to offer incentives to companies or look at other ways to ensure residents are covered. But the issue of water and gas mains being damaged while laying internet lines has been a challenge in some of these areas. But lawmakers are considering a bill to help by requiring local communities to provide maps showing where utility lines currently are.
“Working with local governments, we should be able to develop a comprehensive mapping system that will give us the opportunity to figure out how to get an accurate picture of what’s in the ground. This will give us an opportunity to really reset or reboot our virtual infrastructure across the state,” Governor Landry continued.
The governor says Louisiana is ahead of the rest of the country in this effort. As for a timeline for when all of this is expected to be completed, the governor has asked for patience as he works to get things done while avoiding damage to critical infrastructure.
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