Louisiana rejects Sparklight protest of Conexon's broadband grant

Louisiana officials have rejected a protest from Cable One's Sparklight which aimed to stop the state from awarding a $4 million grant to Conexon to build fiber broadband to 851 locations in East Carroll Parish (LA). Conexon was one of several service providers to receive broadband infrastructure grants through Louisiana's Granting Unserved Municipalities Broadband Opportunities (GUMBO) program as part of a $130 million funding round. But the company was prevented from starting work when one of the state's incumbent providers, Cable One, brought a protest saying it already provided service to the area. That action was met with outrage from the local community, including the group Delta Interfaith which had worked throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to bring high-speed Internet to the area and chose Conexon as a partner. The group even went door-to-door to collect speed test data to prove its residents were not getting advertised speeds by the available incumbent providers, nor could many afford to subscribe to their services. Sparklight provided a "paucity of information" to support its claims that it reliably provides adequate speeds for residents of the region.