Alexandria, LA, Oct. 31, 2024 – U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Utilities Service Administrator Andy Berke announced $63.8 million in awards through the Community Connect Program to provide high-speed internet in 12 states, including Louisiana.
“The Biden-Harris Administration has given USDA unprecedented funding to provide high-speed internet to rural areas that have been forgotten or left behind,” Administrator Berke said. “Rural Americans have enormous potential, but it’s very hard to reach your potential if you don’t have high-speed internet. We are committed to ensuring every person in rural America has high-speed internet, so they have new opportunities and a better chance to succeed.”
USDA recently announced that Star Telephone Company is receiving $4 million through the ReConnect Program to construct a fiber-to-the-premises system to benefit 1,720 residents and two businesses in Evangeline Parish, Louisiana. Subscribers will have access to up to 1-Gbps symmetrical service, expanding access to economic, educational, health care, and public safety opportunities.
A community center room will be provided where residents can access the internet free of charge for at least two years.
“USDA Rural Utilities Service is elated we can fund this project. The funding through the Community Connect program will enable Star Telephone Company Inc. to bring Fiber-to-the-Premises to the rural residents of Evangeline Parish, offering them the high-speed internet capabilities so vital in today’s world,” said Tony Matlock, Rural Development Telecommunications Program General Field Representative.
In past years, Star Telephone Company received ReConnect Program loans and grants to deploy fiber-optic technology and active ethernet to serve homes, businesses, and critical community facilities in the southern parts of Louisiana including Pointe Coupee, Iberville, and St. Landry.
View the full list of projects online.
Background: Community Connect Program
The Community Connect Program helps rural communities extend access where high-speed internet service is least likely to be commercially available, but where it can make a tremendous difference in the quality of life for rural people and businesses. The projects funded by these grants help rural residents tap into the enormous potential of the internet for jobs, education, healthcare, public safety and community development. Recipients of Community Connect awards use grant funds to equip community centers that provide free access to high-speed internet service to area residents for at least two years.
Background: ReConnect Program
The ReConnect Program is uniquely designed to fund the most difficult high-speed internet projects in the nation, which are in the most rural, remote and unserved communities. Many residents and businesses in rural areas would not have high-speed internet service without the ReConnect Program. The program is a key part of the Administration’s Internet for All initiative to connect everyone in America to high-speed internet by 2030.
Since the beginning of the Biden-Harris Administration, 2.4 million American homes and small businesses have been connected to high-speed internet for the first time, and the Department has invested more than $4 billion for 345 ReConnect projects that will bring high-speed internet access to more than 600,000 people in the most rural and remote areas of America.
The recent $63.8 million in grants under the Community Connect Program to build high-speed internet networks will serve rural areas in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Missouri, Mississippi, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
To learn more, visit www.usda.gov.