The city of Lafayette has put “fiber in motion.”
LUSFiber is Lafayette’s community owned telecommunications system. According to Lafayette Utility System (LUS), what began as a fiber system to improve operations of facilities in Lafayette has grown into a catalyst for local economic development, education innovation and enhanced video, Internet and phone services for residents and businesses.
In 2005, citizens voted 62% – 38% to approve bond funding of system and in 2009 the first customers received service.
Last week, LUS Director of Utilities Terry Huval revealed financial information for the company showing positive trends for the fiber initiative. LUS is showing it is cash positive for the second year in a row.
Lafayette City-Parish President Joey Durel was interviewed on “Mornings with Ken and Bernie” for the weekly “Lafayette Live” segment to discuss the initiative further. Durel confirmed some of the financials and announced they have a third of the market.
Additionally, LUS will be offering peer-to-peer gigabit connectivity in the near future. The future looks bright for residents of Lafayette.
Durel said, “I’ll be going to a meeting to speak on a panel to discuss the gigabit community that Lafayette is; I’ve got meetings set up with two national media outlets and the Vice-President of Google in charge of their entire fiber initiative. That’s the one thing I’m most excited about because I think there are opportunities for organizations like Google to partner up with LUSFiber to use us as a test bed for things they’re doing as well as connecting us to their gigabit community. We can be part of an elite little group of cities to test what can be done with gigabit speeds. Google can play a roll in that.”
Click here for the full audio interview and here for more information about LUS.