Community Fiber Network Diversifying Economy in Louisiana

Acadiana, the southern region of Louisiana, is seeing a resurgence of industry thanks in large part to it publicly owned fast, affordable, reliable network. Years ago, the city of Lafayette, Louisiana, built the LUS Fiber network to connect homes and business.

Now, LUS Fiber is helping to diversify Acadiana’s economy, which once almost exclusively relied on the oil industry. Fiber networks offer much potential for economic development. 

“The State of Business” in the Silicon Bayou

The October-November issue of the Acadiana Profile at MyNewOrleans.com ran an article on the changing landscape of Acadiana’s businesses. Author Kimberly Singletary provides an overview of three growing industries: technology, manufacturing, and healthcare. All three need access to reliable, high-speed connections.

Singletary spoke with One Acadiana, an economic development organization in Lafayette:

“We’ve had a long history of innovation in IT and software,” says Jason El Koubi, CEO of One Acadiana. “But it's still very much an emerging field.”

Due to what El Koubi describes as “almost a grassroots movement in cultivating IT over the years,” the Acadiana region enjoys a robust offering of internet services resulting in a competitive, cheap and extremely fast LUS Fiber network.

LUS Fiber offers affordable, high-speed connectivity to several software developers that have made Acadiana their new home. The network offers speeds of up to 2 Gigabits (2,000 Megabits per second). In 2014, LUS Fiber attracted three companies, bringing almost 1,000 jobs to the “Silicon Bayou.” Another company, Waitr, an Uber-like food delivery service, is planning to add an operations center to Lafayette, which will bring another 100 jobs to the community.

More Than Tech: Industries Need Connectivity

Better connectivity through municipal networks has also diversified other communities. For instance, the community network in Dublin, Ohio, helped attract Cardinal Health’s new research facility. Fiber connections are also important for manufacturing. In Chanute, Kansas, Spirit Aerosystems was attracted by the reliability of the city's community fiber network and built a new manufacturing facility.

Although the fiber network supports new opportunities, oil still contributes much to Acadiana’s economy. The energy sector accounts for nearly 45 percent of the local GDP (down from 72 percent in the 1970s). As Acadiana’s economy diversifies, those oil industry workers will not get left behind. Gregg Gothreaux, president and CEO of the Lafayette Economic Development Authority explained in Singletary’s article:

“The oil industry is so diverse, with so many sectors that range from manual labor to deeply technical jobs, and everything in between ... those skills can fortunately translate into other industries. These workers are very employable.”

Learn More About Lafayette

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Check out our 2012 report Broadband At the Speed of Light: How Three Communities Built Next-Generation Networks, which tells the stories of Lafayette, Chattanooga, and Bristol, Virginia, where publicly owned networks have improved access, created economic development opportunity, and greatly enhanced the quality of life.

Christopher also spoke with Terry Huvall, Director of Lafayette Utilities System, in March 2015 about the network's expansion plans; that was episode #144 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast.

Back in 2012, we also spoke with John St. Julien for episode #19 and episode #94. He was one of the leaders of the movement to educate the community about the benefits of a publicly owned network. John passed away earlier this year, but his work to educate the people of Lafayette is still available online.