5 Parishes Where Broadband is About to Change

The Connect Score ranks all 64 Louisiana parishes on a single scale, but the numbers only tell part of the story. Some parishes are on the edge of a major shift: new fiber builds, BEAD investment, or competitive dynamics that will change what residents experience in the next two to three years.

We picked five parishes that stand out in the data, not necessarily the biggest or the most urban, but the ones where the gap between “today” and “soon” is widest.

1. Grant Parish: The Lowest Score, the Biggest Opportunity

Grant Parish sits at the bottom of the Connect Score rankings. Only 11.3% of locations have access to fiber, and the parish has limited provider competition. Most existing coverage comes from DSL and fixed wireless, technologies that meet the bare minimum federal definition but fall well short of modern speeds.

That’s exactly the profile BEAD was designed for. Grant Parish is a primary target for federal investment, and the gap between its current infrastructure and the BEAD standard (100/20 Mbps minimum, fiber preferred) is enormous. When construction begins here, the impact on daily life, from remote work to telehealth to education, will be immediate and measurable.

2. Claiborne Parish: Served on Paper, Underbuilt in Practice

Claiborne Parish illustrates why “served” percentages can be misleading. Nearly 98% of locations have access to some form of broadband, but only 0.3% have fiber. The overwhelming majority of coverage runs on copper and cable networks, many of which were built decades ago.

Residents in Claiborne can technically get online, but they’re dealing with slow upload speeds, reliability issues during bad weather, and the kind of service that makes video calls drop and remote work painful. BEAD investment here won’t be about first-time connectivity. It will be about replacing infrastructure that has aged past its usefulness.

3. Caddo Parish: Urban Gaps in the Shreveport Metro

Caddo Parish is home to Shreveport, Louisiana’s third-largest city, and you might expect urban parishes to score well. Central Shreveport does have reasonable broadband options, including fiber from AT&T and cable from Suddenlink (now Optimum). But the parish extends well beyond the city limits.

Communities south and west of Shreveport, in areas like Keithville, Greenwood, and Gilliam, face connectivity gaps that rival rural parishes. Major BEAD investment is targeted at these unserved pockets. The result should be a more evenly connected parish, not just a well-served city surrounded by dead zones.

4. St. Landry Parish: Fiber Expansion in Acadiana

St. Landry Parish sits in the heart of Acadiana, an area that has historically lagged in broadband investment despite being home to a vibrant regional economy centered on Opelousas and the surrounding communities.

What makes St. Landry interesting right now is that construction is already underway. GUMBO Round 1 grants brought providers like LUS Fiber into the parish, and fiber crews have been active since 2024. This isn’t a future promise, it’s happening. As BEAD funding layers on top of the existing GUMBO work, St. Landry is on track to see one of the fastest improvements in the state.

5. Ascension Parish: The Model for What Competition Delivers

Ascension Parish holds the highest Connect Score in Louisiana, and it didn’t get there by accident. The parish, located just south of Baton Rouge, benefits from strong population growth that attracted provider investment, multiple fiber providers competing for customers, and high household adoption rates.

Ascension is the proof case for what happens when competition works. Residents have choices, speeds are high, prices are competitive, and adoption follows naturally. For other parishes watching from the bottom of the rankings, Ascension shows what the end state looks like when infrastructure investment matures.

The Bigger Picture

These five parishes represent different points on the spectrum: the worst-connected, the misleadingly “served,” the urban-with-gaps, the actively-building, and the best-case outcome. Together, they tell the story of where Louisiana broadband stands today and where it’s heading.

Over the next two to three years, as BEAD construction ramps up and GUMBO projects come online, we expect the scores for Grant, Claiborne, Caddo, and St. Landry to move meaningfully. We’ll track those changes with every FCC data release.

Want to see where your parish ranks? Browse all 64 parish profiles, or check what’s available at your specific address on GetConnectedLA.