A group from East Carroll Parish is hoping to keep the broadband expansion project on track. Nathanael Wills with Delta Interfaith said it’s on hold due to Sparklight, a subsidiary of Cable One protesting the grant awards that they didn’t even apply for to stop competition from providing service.
“If this keeps getting hobbled out and picked away and cannibalized, we’re not going to be putting fiber in the ground like this money is intended to do,” said Wills.
Wills said current laws and rules are written so they favor incumbent providers and what’s happening is if a company that serves even a portion of the area, they can stop competing providers from establishing service and basically block access.
“Because the way it’s written right now, if a company serves one house in a Census block, they can claim service to the entire Census block. So, the system is pretty messed up,” said Wills.
And this is not unique to East Carroll or Louisiana, Wills said Sparklight is holding protests across the country trying to keep competition from being able to provide access to other areas. Wills said they are hoping Governor John Bel Edwards and Commissioner Jay Dardenne will assist their efforts.
“And make sure that this money goes for its intended use and that these grants don’t get so stripped out that they become unfeasible projects,” said Wills.
Wills says out of the 67 grants awarded from the state, 26 are being protested by existing providers.
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