ABBEVILLE, La. (KLFY)-- In Vermilion Parish, LUS Fiber is expanding there.

“We are expanding into Vermilion Parish via the gumbo grants that were awarded to us by the state," Michael Soileau, director of LUS Fiber said.

The federal government awarded states dollars right after COVID-19 for rural broadband expansion. Louisiana accepted those grants and named them gumbo grants. Those were provided to broadband providers who were capable of expanding to certain areas of rural Louisiana and LUS Fiber was selected and awarded the Vermilion Parish Grant. The expansion that people may be seeing is down 167 through Maurice up to Abbeville and then it follows Highway 14 from Abbeville to Erath and then on the opposite side to the west, Abbeville to Gueydan, but it does exclude Kaplan said Soileau. 

“Today so many rural communities in Vermilion and other parishes don't receive true broadband speeds by their coming providers,” he said. “What we’re doing is building our fiber network out there that will enable speeds all the way to one gig and customers can then have a true broadband experience whether they're just enjoying being on the Internet, whether they are streaming TV or movies, or working from home, studying from home if they have a telemedicine appointment with their doctor. Benefits are significant and those benefits are, of course, enabled by the true broadband speeds.” 

You may have seen workers installing the equipment that enables connectivity along the highway. They trench and then bury the fiber. The fiber must be underground in as many places as possible because the state is susceptible to hurricanes, strong wind storms, etc.

Therefore, Soileau said, “those lines are going to be buried along the highways and then they go to what we refer to as cabinets or pedestals, and that will enable us to then run wires to individual homes and businesses, and get the broadband speeds.” 

However, not every neighborhood in every town is going to have the service. 

“It's important to know that it's about a thousand feet on either side of the highway that will be receiving the service. There’ll be pockets of neighborhoods. If you have an Abbeville address. It doesn't mean that everyone in Abbeville is going to have our service, but most will,” he said. 

Soileau said as they get closer to the launch date they will be announcing to the towns that are going to be launching and include an address finder that people can check for serviceability. They are scheduled to be completed to finish by November 30th. 

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