Louisiana
Internet company started with an antenna in a tree. Now it’s leading Louisiana’s broadband push.
ABBEVILLE — At an event celebrating the completion of another project by Cajun Broadband, the little internet company that could, there were speeches by local officials, a video message from Gov. Jeff Landry, a ribbon-cutting.
And there was seafood gumbo, cooked the night before by Chris Disher, the company’s co-founder.
His grandmother made her gumbo with tomatoes, but Disher skipped them, knowing the crowd, and used shrimp and oysters harvested from parish waters.
The gathering in Vermilion Parish, like much of what Cajun Broadband does, had a personal feel that belied a bigger truth: The company is among those leading Louisiana’s push to bring speedy internet to the state’s rural reaches.
This fall, it won $18.2 million in federal funding from the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program, or BEAD, to connect another 4,000 homes and businesses. This month, they’ll be among the companies breaking ground with that funding: “We’re small, so we can build fast,” Disher said.
Already, the Broussard-based company provides fiber internet across Acadiana, in a doughnut-like shape surrounding Lafayette. In 2023, Inc. Magazine named it among the fastest-growing companies in the U.S. — landing at 603 out of 5,000 and fourth among those based in Louisiana.
“We kept doubling the size every year,” Disher said, “because we didn’t understand just how big this need was in the rural communities.”
Humble beginnings
But it started in 2017 with an antenna in a pine tree.
Disher’s two then-teenage sons had been nagging him for years about the slow, spotty internet. One Sunday before church, they’d hooked up their Xbox for a software update, “and the game wasn’t even 5% done updating after being gone for like three and a half hours,” said his son Matthew.
Meanwhile, Chris Disher’s close friend and now partner Jimmy Lewis, an IT professional struggling with his own internet service, had been driving by an empty tower on his way to work each day.
He wondered: What if we put an antenna on that?
They got the OK, grabbed a chain saw and mounted a dish. “And Chris is hollering up at me, ‘We’ve got 60 megs!” Lewis said, short for 60 megabytes per second. “We’ve got 60 megs!”
They hooked up one neighbor, then another, then 10. They kept their day jobs, at first, working nights and weekends.
Matthew Disher splices fiber in a Cajun Broadband truck for a Maurice home in December.
Within two years, they had more than 1,000 customers, said Daniel Romero Jr., operations manager. (Disher declined to give a current count, but the company’s website touts “nearly 10,000 customers across seven Louisiana parishes.”)
“We just kept going and kept building and kept working,” said Lewis, Cajun’s managing director.
When Louisiana’s Granting Underserved Municipalities Broadband Opportunities, or GUMBO, program was announced, Disher bought a nice tie and went door-to-door, parish to parish. In late 2022, with nearly $20 million in GUMBO funding, Cajun Broadband installed some 90,000 feet of fiber in St. Martin Parish.
It was the first completed project in the state under GUMBO, whose mission is in its name. Cajun Broadband competed with and beat bigger companies to nab GUMBO funds, said Veneeth Iyengar, executive director for the Louisiana Office of Broadband Development and Connectivity.
“They bootstrapped this business,” he said. “They saw a need in their community that was not fulfilled, and they decided to bootstrap it through entrepreneurial capitalism and build a business which is now impacting thousands of lives.”
Still, the business has stayed small and nimble. Ask an employee how many of them there are, and they’ll begin ticking off names, counting the number on two hands. It feels like family, said Steven Creduer, field supervisor. “I’m leaving my house to go to my other house.”
Disher’s son, Matthew, works in the field as a splicer now. Romero’s daughter works for the company, too.
Employees exchange “Merry Christmas” texts with customers. Many of them had long struggled to use Zoom, to upload and to stream, and were thrilled to spot Cajun Broadband’s trailer on their rural roads. Technicians see firsthand how people rely on the internet for necessities, from health care to homework.
“People are really happy you’re there,” Disher said.
Company founders and state and local officials hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the expansion of Cajun Broadband into Vermilion Parish Tuesday, December 9, 2025, at the LSU AgCenter Cooperative Extension Building in Abbeville, La.
‘Issues on top of issues’
A Louisiana-born-and-educated engineer, Disher hadn’t yearned to be an entrepreneur, the 55-year-old said. “I never wanted to do anything on my own.”
For years, he worked for General Electric in the oil fields of Singapore and Brazil, eventually supporting six regions from Broussard — but traveling often. Then GE downsized, and Disher lost his job.
With his wife’s encouragement, he became Cajun Broadband’s first full-time employee, he said. “She just kept saying, ‘You can do it, you can do it.’”
At first, he felt responsible to his family, his mortgage in mind. Then, he felt responsible for the company’s employees, their families in mind. Now, he feels responsible for the region and its residents.
Several broadband customers were in at the LSU Ag Center office in Abbeville for last month’s ribbon-cutting, which marked the completion of three broadband projects in Vermillion Parish comprising some 500,000 feet of fiber to 1,750 homes and businesses.
Among the beneficiaries: Michelle Romero, a 38-year-old mother, nurse and health coach who can now upload her workout videos in a few minutes, rather than several hours. (Disher used healthier oils in his gumbo, knowing she’d be in the crowd.)
And there’s the North Vermilion Youth Athletic Association, which for years had struggled to make credit card sales in its concession stand using Cox internet.
“We had issues on top of issues,” said Josh Broussard, the nonprofit’s president.
Cajun Broadband offered the athletic association free hookups, Wi-Fi service and boosters in exchange for some publicity. Now, the park has strong enough service to fuel live scoreboards and stream games, Broussard said, which means that they can host regional tournaments.
Broussard, who played sports at the park as a child, said the change is much needed.
“I saw what it was, and I just want to improve it,” Broussard said, “and make it better than what it was when we were there.”
Louisiana ranks among the top 10 most affordable states to retire, according to a new study from Retirement Living, a national journal of retirement research.
Researchers analyzed each state’s housing costs, living expenses and tax friendliness to compile the ranking. Louisiana, they say, is the eighth most affordable state for retirees.
In Louisiana, the median monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $932, the median home sale price is $255,000, monthly grocery spend per capita is $272, the average price per gallon of regular gas is $4, the average Medicare Advantage monthly premium is $13.35 and the average effective property tax rate is 0.55%.
West Virginia is the most affordable state to retire, followed by Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Louisiana, Indiana and Kansas. Researchers describe the South as “the sweet spot for an affordable retirement.”
The most expensive state to retire, meanwhile, is California, followed by Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Utah, New York and Minnesota.
Read Retirement Living’s full report here.
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – With hurricane season approaching, the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority is bringing the community together to prepare before a storm forms.
“We can’t stop disasters from happening. We can’t stop hurricanes from happening. But what we can do is equip our communities with the resources that they need to prepare for these storms ahead of time,” said Jayda Morris, CPRA outreach manager.
The agency hosted an event featuring interactive storm simulations and a full model of the Mississippi River.
“If you do it now, like on a sunny day like today, you’re ready to go for the rest of the season,” Jay Grymes said.
El Niño may reduce storms, but Louisiana still at risk
State Climatologist Jay Grymes said an El Niño pattern may reduce the number of storms in the Atlantic but warned against a false sense of security.
“In those 25 years, Louisiana, some part of the state has been impacted by 29 storms. That’s one a year, regardless of El Niño. So that should tell you something,” Grymes said.
He said the bigger concern is storms that can form in the Gulf with little warning.
“If we’re going to get a storm, it very possibly could be one that bubbles up in the Gulf and doesn’t give us five or seven days to track it coming our way. It gives us 40 hours to get ready for a landfall. So it’s imperative that you go ahead and do it now,” Grymes said.
Preparation goes beyond stocking water
Preparing now includes walking through yards, checking trees, and knowing whether everyone in the family can survive two weeks without power.
PhD students with the LSU College of the Coast and Environment gave the community a virtual reality experience that puts users inside a storm.
“If they wear the goggles or play with the Apple Vision Pro, they can understand how high will the flood be, and they can know how dangerous is the hurricane scenario,” said Yixuan Wang.
The VR simulation uses real historical data to show users what compound flooding looks like in New Orleans and surrounding areas. The goal is to make the science real for people who can’t picture what a flood map means.
“It’s just to let you understand the environment. We will add the audios, the different sound of the wind and the storm. And you can see how tense of the rainfall around you,” Wang said.
Organizers said the event is about making sure that when a storm threatens the area, families already know their plan.
Information from the event is available on CPRA’s website. Hurricane season runs through Nov. 30.
Click here to report a typo. Please include the headline.
Click here to subscribe to our WAFB 9 News daily digest and breaking news alerts delivered straight to your email inbox.
Watch the latest WAFB news and weather now.
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – Louisiana homeowners can get financial help to upgrade their roofs and ensure they can better stand up to strong storms.
According to the Louisiana Department of Insurance, registration for next Louisiana Fortify Homes Program lottery opens at 8 a.m. on Monday, June 1. The registration period will stay open through 5 p.m. on Friday, June 19.
Under the latest round of the program, 3,000 grants of up to $10,000 will go out. After applying, homeowners will get placed into a lottery and will be randomly selected.
There are many specific benefits of having a roof upgraded through the Louisiana Fortify Homes Program. Officials said the roofs have stronger shingles that can protect against hail up to two inches wide, sealed roof decks to help prevent water damage, and stronger edges to keep wind from getting underneath.
Homeowners with a fortified roof can also get a certificate to receive a discount on insurance premiums.
“At the end of the day, this program is about more than just roofs,” said Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple. “It is about protecting families, it is about strengthening communities, and it is about putting Louisiana in a stronger position—both physically and economically—to face the challenges ahead.”
Only people living in Ascension Parish, Livingston Parish, Assumption Parish, Tangipahoa Parish, Acadia Parish, Calcasieu Parish, Cameron Parish, Iberia Parish, Jefferson Parish, Jefferson Davis Parish, Lafayette Parish, Lafourche Parish, Orleans Parish, Plaquemines Parish, St. Bernard Parish, St. Charles Parish, St. James Parish, St. John the Baptist Parish, St. Martin Parish, St. Mary Parish, St. Tammany Parish, Terrebonne Parish, and Vermilion Parish are eligible to apply for the latest round of the program.
People living in a newly built home, mobile home, or condominium are not qualified.
For a detailed list of eligibility requirements, click here.
If a person registered for the program previously, he or she must do so again. The person will also need to provide the following information:
- A homestead exemption on the primary residence.
- A policy of insurance that provides wind coverage for the primary residence.
- A flood insurance policy on the primary residence if it is in a special flood hazard area.
For more information about applying, click here.
Click here to report a typo. Please include the headline.
Click here to subscribe to our WAFB 9 News daily digest and breaking news alerts delivered straight to your email inbox.
Watch the latest WAFB news and weather now.
-
Entertainment5 minutes agoRonald LaPread, Commodores’ co-founder and bassist, dies at 75
-
Lifestyle12 minutes agoHoover Dam, challenged by drought, now wears a U.S. flag the size of a football field
-
Politics15 minutes ago’60 Minutes’ veteran Scott Pelley rips CBS News bosses, saying they are ‘murdering’ the program
-
Sports27 minutes agoRams acquire Myles Garrett for Jared Verse and draft picks in blockbuster trade
-
World35 minutes agoEU approves strictest-ever migration law, including return hubs
-
News1 hour agoRemains of Los Alamos National Laboratory employee missing for nearly a year found in New Mexico forest | CNN
-
Los Angeles, Ca2 hours agoSticker shock not just affecting World Cup match ticket prices, but parking costs too
-
Detroit, MI3 hours agoFrankie Valli cancels tour. Why Four Seasons won’t be back in Detroit
