A plan to bring high-speed internet to fourteen parishes in Northern Louisiana clears the Public Service Commission. Rural electric cooperatives serving the area received approval from the PSC to enter the internet business. Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell says the initiative is long overdue.
“We’re gonna work with the co-ops. We’re going to get high speed internet to the people of Louisiana that desperately need it. The children need it for their schoolwork, the businesses need it, the hospitals need it for medical records, etc.,” says Campbell.
The PSC voted unanimously for Campbell’s plan to allow Claiborne Electric in Homer and Northeast Louisiana Power in Winnsboro to use federal grants and low-interest loans to provide high-speed internet from Webster Parish eastward to the Mississippi River. Campbell says it’s a necessity for economic development.
“From Minden to the Mississippi River, which is a long ways out across the country, and there’s lots of rural area without high-speed internet. We need it to develop that part of the country,” says Campbell.
Campbell says currently the electric co-ops provide some of the lowest power rates in the state and he expects them to be able to provide high-speed internet at reasonable rates as well to rural areas of Northern Louisiana.
“This is fourteen parishes; it’s a great thing and we’re going to make sure it works.”
Campbell predicts high-speed internet availability in the area in 15 months.
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