Louisiana is 33rd in the US for broadband access, with the southeast region having the highest concentration of high-speed internet coverage. This is likely because this area is densely populated. User speed tests show that average download speeds in Louisiana are roughly 109.4 Mbps, which is faster than a number of higher-ranking states like California and Hawaii.
Terrestrial Broadband Coverage
Wired Low Price Plan Access
Mbps Average State Wide Speed
State Broadband Access Ranking
of Louisianians have access to broadband 100mbps or faster.
of Louisianians have access to 1 gigabit broadband.
New Orleans
102.5 MBPS
21 Providers
Baton Rouge
117.9 MBPS
22 Providers
Shreveport
98.3 MBPS
18 Providers
Lafayette
123.5 MBPS
22 Providers
Metairie
127.1 MBPS
16 Providers
Louisiana is 33rd in the US for broadband access, with the southeast region having the highest concentration of high-speed internet coverage. This is likely because this area is densely populated. User speed tests show that average download speeds in Louisiana are roughly 109.4 Mbps, which is faster than a number of higher-ranking states like California and Hawaii.
The “digital divide” is a term used to quantify the gulf between people who have reliable access to the internet and those who do not. 89.3% of Louisiana residents have access to a 25+ Mbps wired broadband. Meaning that over 10% of the population are left without access to a connection capable of such speeds. At present there are 126 internet providers, but 439,000 people are limited to only one in their area, with 262,000 people having access to none.
Still, 56.4% of Louisianans do have access a ‘low-priced’ internet plan ($60 at most per month), which is at least higher than the national average of 51.5%.
The most well-connected cities in Louisiana are Metairie, Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, and Shreveport, respectively. This is in terms of coverage, affordability, and speed.
A handful of other Louisiana cities are falling far behind with their broadband connectivity. At this time, the worst-connected cities in the state are Hamburg, Acme, Belmont, and Lisbon. Residents in these cities don't have access to wired broadband at all.
$6,649,679 has been put towards broadband data collection and development within the state, since 2010.
In addition, a federal grant of $89,759,799 has been awarded to Louisiana to further expand their broadband infrastructure.
More recently, the Broadband for Everyone in Louisiana (BEL) Commission has been launched to upgrade both the adoption and availability of wired connections for all Louisianans by 2029, by providing universal access to broadband service with minimum committed speed of 25 Megabits per second (Mbps) download and 3 Mbps upload, scalable to up to 100 Mbps download and 100 Mbps upload.