Louisiana loses $80 million broadband stimulus grant

The NTIA has rescinded the $80 million broadband grant given to Louisiana for the deployment of a 900-mile fiber optic network that would have delivered broadband service to the poorest parts of the state, as well as to educational institutions. According to US Senator Mary Landrieu (from Louisiana), the state failed to meet the deadlines set by the US Department of Commerce (under which the NTIA falls) and once again failed to get federal funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This is not the first time that Louisiana, a poor state, has turned up its nose at money from the Feds.

Louisiana struggled to provide the federal government with information about the project’s status and completion:

“This lack of details and specificity, for example on benefits to local universities and where/when fiber would be deployed in the state, effectively doomed the project. Despite repeated requests and extensions from federal officials, the state was unable to provide sufficient clarity that its new proposal would be completed on schedule and provide similar benefits as the original application. As of June 30, according to information submitted to the Department of Commerce, the project had expended $5.3 million of $15 million in state funds and only $431,747 of the $80.5 million federal award.  Despite expending these funds, only 7 percent of the overall project had been completed as of that date.  The project is currently in the 19^th month of a 36-month timeline for the initiative.  The deadline for completion of the project was February 2013.”

(see Bayoubuzz)

Read the termination letter sent by the NTIA, which states that on July 20, 2011 Louisiana told the NTIA that its engineering contractor had failed to meet the schedule deadline. So Louisiana proposed massive changes to the project which excluded the construction of a fiber network and instead relied upon buying fiber capacity via “indefeasible rights of use” agreements (or IRUs) from private providers. Unfortunately, the alternative plan proposed by Louisiana did not address the NTIA’s concerns and did not state in sufficient detail what the business plan would be or how it would meet the broadband stimulus plan’s original goals.

You can also see the letter on Scribd:

Louisiana loses $80M broadband grant

Interesting, isn’t it? So instead of laying fiber, Louisiana, in the end wanted to use the money to further enrich the state’s existing fiber broadband providers, using NTIA funds.

Read all of the reports filed in the Louisiana Board of Regents broadband stimulus project.

(thanks to Carlo MacDonald for sending the Louisiana news)