On August 18, 2026, ConnectLA hosted an event celebrating their continued efforts in expanding internet access in Livingston Parish through the GUMBO 1.0 Program which seeks to “expand reliable, high-speed internet access across underserved areas of Louisiana.”
Spectrum, the internet service provider (ISP) for the program, has already seen 263 households and 30 businesses served through their partnership with ConnectLA.
The Granting Unserved Municipalities Broadband Opportunities (GUMBO 1.0) Program, “invests in broadband infrastructure projects to connect unserved and underserved communities across Louisiana.”
Krystal Hardison, the director of the Southeastern Livingston Literacy and Technology Center, opened the event by noting that increased network connectivity leads to increased educational opportunities, especially for the Literacy and Technology Center and also colleges such as Southeastern Louisiana University (SELU).
“As of last night, we have served over 720 people with our digital literacy classes, so we are very excited to be a part of this,” Hardison stated.
SELU President Dr. William Wainwright spoke next, highlighting the opportunities these expanded internet services can provide for educational expansion.
“If we go back to the movement of STEM, a lot of that foundation was built with STEM literacy, and as we look to expand broadband, there you have the digital literacy. And as we look to expand AI and its impact, we are heavily involved in AI literacy. So it was very natural, as a higher education institution, for us to come in and certainly lead in this effort,” Dr. Wainwright added.
Dr. Wainwright also noted that, after experiencing the 2016 flood and the havoc it wrought on educational operations, “it really dawned on us… that broadband expansion is vital, because at that time we did not have the capacity and so we saw a lot of students suffer with limited access.”
“Today, that has changed… our rural communities have access, and that access will continue to be bolstered,” Dr. Wainwright concluded. “And as you look at the evolution of all of the technology that we’re seeing, whether it's STEM or Artificial Intelligence, we are better and stronger today because of… the investment in expanding broadband and building access to [internet] speed.”
Livingston Parish School Board Superintendent Jody Purvis offered his perspective by noting he’s “a believer… that every child deserves a chance to learn. They all deserve the resources that’s necessary [to learn]. This allows us to expand those resources. We can get to those underserved areas and make sure that students can access the resources that’s online or they can take a class from home.”
Captain Jack Varnado with Link Up Livingston added that broadband internet is responsible for the existence of “next generation 911” which “is putting the 911 system on the internet, so that we can receive more than just a voice call for 911 services. We can begin to start receiving pictures and video, text messages… allowing our responders out there to see, hear, and have a better picture of what’s going on.”
State Representative Lauren Ventrella noted that “we’re gonna make sure that we’re staying on our goal to get high-speed internet access across the state by 2028.”
“In 2021, when I joined the Broadband office, 65% of the state was served with connectivity. It was a problem impacting one out of three Louisianians. Now we’re close to 95%,” Veneeth Iyengar, executive director of ConnectLA, stated. “The work is still not done in Livingston, because there’s still 1,600 households and small businesses today that don’t have any connectivity. But the good thing is that we have funded a couple of providers to build connectivity to each of those locations.”
“You’re gonna continue to see expansion in Livingston Parish, you’re gonna continue to see continued investment from Spectrum, you’re gonna see more competition, and you’re gonna see reduced prices,” Iyengar concluded.
As a result of greater availability of reliable internet service, each speaker noted that better access to online tools, school resources, telehealth services, remote work, and small business operations will create more opportunities and potential prospects for the growth of Livingston Parish as well as Louisiana.
The upcoming GUMBO 2.0 Program seeks to continue the original program’s goals by seeking additional investments as a precursor for further expansion of network services to the entire state.
