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Council sets public hearing for Optimum fiber right‑of‑way agreement after extended Q&A
Summary
Optimum representatives told the council they plan a private‑investment fiber build to more than 11,000 homes and businesses in New Iberia and sought a right‑of‑way agreement; council set a public hearing for April 15 and raised questions about maintenance, mapping and removal of equipment.
The New Iberia City Council set a public hearing for April 15 on Ordinance 2025008, a right‑of‑way agreement with Optimum for fiber internet infrastructure in the city.
Johnny Moyer, senior director of government affairs for Optimum, told the council his company plans a private investment to build fiber to “about 11,200” passings (homes and businesses) in the first phase and is not seeking city, parish or state funds for the work. “Our plan is to build out over 11,000 homes and businesses. It’s all private investment,” Moyer said.
Council members used the presentation to press Optimum on several local concerns: who will maintain aerial boxes and hardware, whether equipment must be removed if the company leaves the market, mapping and notification of construction and how service will be restored after outages.
Councilwoman Brooke Marcotte noted the city has seen other providers place utility boxes without timely remediation and asked that the agreement include maintenance and removal obligations. Council members also asked whether the fiber would be mostly overhead; Moyer said the network will be primarily above ground with a limited number of small remote optical nodes and that Optimum already has pull‑attachment agreements with Cleco and other entities. He offered to provide a proprietary map to council members after the meeting and to hold preconstruction meetings with city staff and a local construction contact.
Moyer said Optimum expects to offer high‑speed symmetrical fiber service and later introduce streaming/cable products, but gave no firm timetable for video/cable availability. On reliability, Moyer said theft and major storm damage are typical causes of outages and that Optimum maintains field service and outside‑plant teams for repairs.
The ordinance as presented is a template right‑of‑way agreement; Moyer told council the company is willing to negotiate additional terms, including maintenance, mapping and aesthetic treatments such as wrapping boxes where the city requests it. Council set a public hearing on April 15 so the agreement can be reviewed and revised if necessary.
