Faster internet coming to St. Tammany Parish rural neighborhoods

COVINGTON, La (WGNO) — St. Tammany Parish President Mike Cooper announced a $3 million fiber infrastructure project that will increase internet speed for under served or low speed neighborhoods. Fiber optic cables will be installed along Louisiana 25, increasing speed by up to 5 gigabytes per second.

“Having a high speed internet is very, very important,” Parish President Mike Cooper said. It’s a necessity now, not a luxury.”

Under phase one of the project, neighborhoods between Covington and Folsom will be first see improvements.

“We took the maps, the zoning maps, land use maps and speed data from around the parish,” Grant Black, St. Tammany Parish’s director of technology said. “We layered all those on top of each other, and you basically saw was dense zoning with low speed fiber and those are the areas we want to target.”

The American Rescue Plan Act will contribute $2 million in funding, while the remaining $1 million will be paid off by the contractor, AT&T.

Other phases for the broadband expansion are currently in the planning stages. Once phase one is completed, a total of 883 homes will have stronger internet.

“Just as we we pride ourselves on providing roads, bridges, drainage, utilities, infrastructure. This is a not another part of our infrastructure investment,” Cooper said.

Users can expect to pay around $80 a month for a standard plan, unless you qualify for the Affordable Connectivity Program, which could bring your bill down to $30.

“This is a super determinant for health care outcomes. I think the this is life changing for people that will receive this high speed internet,” Black said.

Phase one is expected to take two years to complete.

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