Thank you for coming to the Washington Parish Broadband Initiative (WPBI) web page.  Affordable access to the internet is imperative for community growth.  Rural communities have unique challenges when trying to provide high speed internet access to homes and businesses in areas of low population density.  Cost of equipment and the distances involved make return on investment rates low for service providers.  Therefore service providers are slow make the investment necessary for providing high speed internet service in rural areas.  We suspect that Washington Parish has approximately 10,000 homes with no access to reliable and cost effective high speed internet access. Because it is unacceptable for nearly half of our residents to be without reliable and cost effective high speed internet access, we are working to encourage service providers to deploy high speed internet services throughout Washington Parish.

In order to bring service providers to Washington Parish, we must have a plan.  Before we can develop a plan, we must have a clear understanding where internet access is available and where it is desired.  To accomplish this goal, we have developed the Washington Parish Broadband Availability Survey (WPBAS).  We plan to use the results of the WPBAS to generate maps showing where high speed internet service is available and where it is desired.  Please take the time to complete the WPBAS by clicking on the Broadband Availability Survey.

The results of the WPBAS will be used in developing a detailed plan for providing affordable, reliable, high-speed internet access to Washington Parish residents and businesses.  This is the first step of what promises to be a long process but as Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one's feet”.  If we don’t get started, we never can get finished.  If you would like to help us in this process, please contact Dempsey Parden at dparden@wpgov.org.