EAST CARROLL PARISH — When the internet is iffy in Lake Providence, as it often is, Brittany Lyons, the owner of an in-home care service, has a backup.
She drives a half mile to the hospital where her sister works and asks to use their network, which is a bit more reliable.
At the local U-Haul rental outlet, manager Kyla Richardson is used to pulling out her smartphone to help customers when the store's internet falters. To host a recent training session, the district attorney's office borrowed a personal WiFi hot spot from the library.
Glenn Dixon, an investigator with the DA's office, flipped through a paper calendar earlier this month, shaking his head. The office manager scrawls “No internet,†on days that their line-of-sight wireless service is down.
May 2024: Out for three days. June 2024: out for five.
“Storm,†she wrote in August 2024. Out for 10.
"We can’t go paperless like many offices are doing now,†Dixon said, his desk covered in folders, loose sheets and sticky notes. “We just can’t.â€
For years, residents of this town of 3,600 have pushed for faster, more reliable service — the kind that comes via fiber optic cables. The kind that residents in most U.S. cities and suburbs take for granted. They were set to get it. But a project that would have extended fiber across town was canceled after the Trump administration for a national $42 billion broadband build-out passed under the previous administration.
Republican lawmakers have long criticized the slow rollout of the bipartisan Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program, known as BEAD, created under the Biden administration in 2021. This month’s sweeping changes rid the program of unnecessary mandates, according to the Commerce Department, and take a “technology neutral†approach that will “guarantee that American taxpayers obtain the greatest return on their broadband investment.â€
But the rewrite also pushes things back, leaving communities such as Lake Providence waiting, once again. ¶¶Òõh was the first state to secure federal approval of BEAD funds. Internet provider Conexon had planned to start building in Lake Providence this summer. Now, the company’s co-CEO Jonathan Chambers isn’t sure the project will qualify.
Because many people rely on wireless internet, a storm here, in the far northeast corner of the state, can weaken or wipe out their signals — and with it, online billing software, patient portals, YouTube. But it doesn’t take a storm, residents said. Internet can be spotty on an average afternoon.
“The fiber is just sitting there, on the edge of town,†Nathaneal Wills, organizer with Delta Interfaith, a group pushing for broadband as one solution to knotty problems in the area.
In the meantime, those in town lean out windows, refresh pages, grit their teeth. Sometimes, they pray.
'It's rural rural'
Lifelong Lake Providence resident Wanda Manning gets annoyed when, watching a sermon on YouTube, her screen turns white. "Low wireless signal," her Roku told her on a recent late night.
But the retired teacher began pushing for broadband because of the kids. A few years back, amid the coronavirus pandemic, Manning was trying to keep her students’ attention online, but some wouldn’t stay connected. She fussed at them before learning the truth: They ³¦´Ç³Ü±ô»å²Ô’t stay connected.
After retiring, she pledged to them: “If I do anything, I’m going to make sure you have good, sustainable, reliable internet.â€
Wanda Manning, a retired teacher, has been pushing for broadband in Lake Providence. She stood for a portrait outside the Together for Hope House, where she is the program director, organizing drives for diapers and school supplies.
Rural kids deserve that, too, Manning said. And East Carroll Parish isn’t just rural, as the 61-year-old likes to say: “It’s rural rural.â€
So she joined Delta Interfaith’s work. She conducted speed tests, discovering that residents were often getting slower speeds than advertised. She wrote members of Congress, encouraging them to let the BEAD plan move forward.
“People here believed this administration would deliver for rural America,†Manning wrote in an open letter to U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, who represents the area, that ran this month in the East Carroll Banner, the weekly newspaper. “That it would cut red tape, not bury us in it. We need your voice in Washington to help make that promise real.â€
A spokesperson for Letlow declined an interview request but provided a statement, saying that "the goal of federal broadband programs should be to ensure high-speed internet access to people who currently have none, and I’m pleased to see the Trump Administration knocking down regulatory barriers so we can get the job done.â€
In its first iteration, BEAD prioritized fiber. Now, Chambers argues that the new rules are “written to be so favorable to satellite, specifically" that fiber networks, long considered the height of speed and reliability, need not apply.
“People have used this rhetoric about being ‘technology-neutral,’ right? This is not technology neutral. The new rules are decidedly one-sided.â€
Starlink, the satellite internet company owned by Elon Musk, is already available in Lake Providence, which straddles the oxbow lake of the same name, cypress trees wading along its shoreline.
But tree cover can preclude satellite access. And at around $120 a month, the service is pricey in a place where the median income is just $25,000. There are also cable-based services and a line-of-sight wireless option. Cellphone providers such as Verizon and AT&T are available, too.Â
But none of these services is as fast or reliable as fiber, residents said.
They know it because they’ve seen it: With the help of an earlier grant, known as GUMBO, Kansas-City-based Conexon built a network in 2024 bringing 325 miles of fiber to 1,400 households and businesses in East Carroll, outside of town. Conexon charges $60 a month for 200 megabits-per-second residential service and $80 a month for 1 gigabit service.
Suddenly, residents accustomed to seeing an “SOS†signal at the top of their cellphone screens got internet service speedy enough to power not only their phone conversations but their virtual doctor’s visits and video games.
Fiber cables, installed underground, consistently meet the Federal Communications Commission’s broadband requirements of 100 megabits per second for downloads and 20 Mbps for uploads. This month, a national speed analysis found that just 17.4% of Starlink users got speeds consistent with those minimum requirements.
That study, by Ookla, a private research company, showed that ¶¶Òõh users fared even worse: Only 9% of the state’s Starlink users got those speeds. A Starlink spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
The fiber projects' starts and stops have been hard on Manning, who fields questions at church about whether the long-discussed network will ever arrive. She could imagine spending her retirement differently — in her art room, painted two shades of purple, drawing.
But partly because of her faith, she feels called to improve the lives of young people in the community.
'Just no way'
The lack of reliable broadband isn't just an inconvenience, according to local officials. It has slowed upgrades of some public services.
A printer hissed, spitting out a sheet of paper, as Debra Hopkins described the problem. East Carroll Parish needs a new 911 system. Its equipment, meant to be replaced every five years or so, is now 12 years old. But Hopkins, director of the East Carroll Parish Communications District, can’t go digital.
“There’s just no way,†Hopkins said.
A next-generation 911 system running on high-speed internet would do away with paper. It would give dispatchers and responders a caller’s location. And it would cost half as much as the current system. Hopkins anticipates that in a decade, companies won’t even offer analog options. Her current provider is already begging her to switch.
Debra Hopkins, director of the East Carroll Parish Communications District, could save taxpayers money by switching to a digital 911 system. "But we've got to have some redundancy," said Hopkins, who also writes for the weekly newspaper.
“But we’ve got to have some redundancy,†Hopkins said.
The internet simply isn't reliable, and $600-a-month satellite service isn't in her budget. Since the sheriff’s office turned its administrative phone lines digital, the department often turns to her when its internet is out. “My analog phone is how they have to answer their phones — with this one little bitty analog phone right here."
A street over, at the local library, a staff member called a lifelong resident with good news: an internet hot spot was available. A friend had told Tammy Wilson about a work-from-home job, but Wilson needed a laptop and a better Wi-Fi connection. From the library, she borrowed both.
"It’s a blessing," she said.
Six years ago, Kris Sanders, the library's director, nabbed a grant to purchase five so-called "mi-fi" devices. Often, all five are checked out.
The library, its windows adorned with white string lights, is "a hub, so we should have the best internet in the parish," she said. A tall tower stands beside the building. "But right now, when the weather is about to get bad," she continued, gesturing up toward the sky, "that means our internet is going to start glitching."Â
Sanders has worked in East Carroll Parish all her life. It's a beautiful community, with elders such as Manning, who "want to see people grow."
But it's also "in this little bitty corner of nothing," an area that gets overlooked. She lives in neighboring West Carroll, where her fiber internet is solid. She doesn't understand why providers, why governments can't cover the whole area. "How do you skip over people? That perplexes me."
