The Divide: How LUS Fiber makes the muni model work in Lafayette, Louisiana

This week on the podcast, we hear from Ryan Meche, director of LUS Fiber, a municipal fiber provider in Lafayette, Louisiana, which has been providing broadband service to the area since 2009.

LUS Fiber emerged from Lafayette Utilities System (LUS), the city's provider of electric, water and wastewater for nearly 125 years. Despite pushback and a series of lawsuits brought by incumbent telcos, LUS Fiber now serves about 25,000 customers in the city of Lafayette.

We discuss why the city chose a municipal broadband model, how it's funded and how it functions differently as a public utility than a private ISP.

We also discuss how LUS Fiber is managing supply shortages, and the company's recent application for an NTIA grant which it hopes to use to expand north to Ville Platte, Louisiana, a community "with the fifth-slowest broadband in the nation," says Meche.

Related episodes:

• The Divide: UTOPIA Fiber's Roger Timmerman on serving Utah with open access muni broadband
• The Divide: Rep. Drew Hansen on passing Washington's Public Broadband Act

— Nicole Ferraro, contributing editor and host of "The Divide" and "What's the Story?" Light Reading