Louisiana is set to become the first US state to secure final approval from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.
In an announcement earlier this week, the state confirmed it has gained federal approval for its plan to deploy $1.355 billion in BEAD funding through the state’s GUMBO 2.0 program.
GUMBO 2.0, administered by ConnectLA, plans to connect approximately 140,000 locations across the state to high-speed Internet through funding awards to 20 ISPs, with nearly 70 percent of the funds awarded to Louisiana companies.
The state says that broadband investments will "drive significant economic growth for the state," and create between 8,000 to 10,000 new jobs, plus $2 billion to $3 billion in new revenue for companies based in the state.
After receiving the approval, the state said it expects to get to work on delivering broadband access across the state as part of the program.
“Federal approval of our plan to expand broadband across Louisiana marks a turning point for our state as we prepare to swiftly move from planning to construction and implementation in connecting underserved communities with high-speed Internet,” said ConnectLA executive director Veneeth Iyengar.
"Based on conversations with Internet service providers, we fully expect to see shovels in the ground in the next 100 days."
The program was created by Congress in November 2021 and has been implemented by the NTIA.
Despite being created in 2021, the program has faced heavy scrutiny in recent months.
Funding for the program is still in the process of being allocated on a state-by-state basis, and at present, nobody in the US has been connected via the BEAD program.
The program was set up to expand high-speed Internet access to all 50 states, Washington DC, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Last month, Senator Joni Ernst told the US Department for Government Efficiency (DOGE) to shut down the BEAD program.
In a letter to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, both of whom have been appointed by President-Elect Donald Trump as co-chairmen of the DOGE, Ernst slammed the program.
It's worth noting that DOGE is not actually a federal executive department, as it would require an act of Congress to create, but will instead serve as an advisory body operating outside of government.
Ernst's comments came less than a fortnight after Senator Ted Cruz penned a letter to the NTIA, urging them to pause the program.