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Swift Fiber outlines rural broadband rollout, cites state/federal deadlines and offers local routes
Summary
Representatives of Swift Fiber briefed the jury on a government-funded rural broadband deployment, said state-funded areas must be built by November 2025 and federal-funded areas by 2027, and offered a sample retail package of 100 Mbps for $50/month while promising follow-up route maps and KMZ files.
Representatives from Swift Fiber presented a deployment plan for government-funded rural broadband in DeSoto Parish. The company identified expected cabinet locations and said its rollout strategy is to coordinate with local water districts and utility locators to avoid overconcentrating contractors and drill rigs in a single parish.
Funding and schedule: presenters said their work is part of layered state and federal programs. They stated that state-funded priority areas must be built by November 2025 and that federal deadlines for broader buildout extend into 2027. They described a strategy to build backbone segments first and then extend distribution to lower‑density areas.
Coverage and operations: Swift Fiber said initial design work is not yet complete for the whole parish but that contractors had picked candidate areas; they said they would share KMZ route files with the parish's water departments and utility locators and expected mobilization within weeks. Staff also discussed permitting and road‑crossing coordination with parish permitting staff.
Service and pricing: the presenter said they could not finalize retail pricing during the presentation but cited an example package of 100 Mbps for $50/month as what they planned to offer as an initial product. Jurors raised specific coverage concerns for neighborhoods such as Ranch Land Acres and questioned whether nearby providers (e.g., Pelican Broadband) were operating in parts of the parish; Swift Fiber said they were aware of other companies and not directly affiliated with them.
The company left contact information and offered to provide more detailed maps and follow-up meetings. Jurors were encouraged to register for an upcoming regional broadband meeting in Shreveport.
No formal action was taken by the jury at the meeting; the presentation ended with staff offering to provide route files and follow-up contact details.
