If Baton Rouge is the capital of the state of Louisiana today, New Orleans was the capital of French Louisiana in the 18 century —the city, actually, was founded by French.
The city took the headlines of all the United States in 2005, after it was severely affected by the Katrina Hurricane.
The Hurricane left behind more than 1.800 dead people, destroyed thousands of houses and flooded 80% of the city.
It was historical when, just four years after Katrina, the New Orleans Saints won their first ever Super Bowl in the NFL (National Football League).
The team was led by quarterback Drew Brees (who was named the MVP of the final, who defeated, first, the great Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings, to win its first ever conference title and reach the first NFL final in franchise history.
Reaching that game was already historical for that team. But in the Super Bowl XLIV, the Indianapolis Colts, led by the hall of fame Payton Manning, opened 10-0 in the score after 15 minutes.
But Brees, who had joined the team the year after Katrina (in 2006), was able to change the game and the New Orlean Saints won 37-17 at the end, to win the one and only Super Bowl for the city.
But why are we talking about football? Because as the New Orleans Saints have shown, the city has recovered very fast from the tragedy. Although there are concerns about gentrification and other problems in the process of redeveloping the city, as far as the internet is concerned, it has shown very good results.
The average download speed in New Orleans is 173 Mbps, a figure faster, for example, than at the second largest city in the United States, Los Angeles (161 Mbps) and even with the fifth, Philadelphia (179 Mbps).
The most impressive is the fiber coverage. The technology reaches 100% of the city. As it is a new technology, it is still being implemented all through the US, so in many many places, it is still rarely available.
Maybe because the city had to be reconstructed after the hurricane, fiber connections are so developed in New Orleans.
Fiber is much faster than cable connections because it transmits data through glass made wires, literally at the speed of light. It has also more data capacity and is able to provide similar download and upload speeds, something that no other type of connection can.
Also, it is the technology of the future, because it probably will be used in the 6th generation of the internet: the new type of internet that promises to bring alive smart cities and the metaverse (and for that, will need much more data, something that fiber supports).
New Orleans is the 6th most connected city in the state of Louisiana. 98% of its residents have access to at least two different Internet Service Providers (ISP).
The best alternative is AT&T, but it is not largely available as it is in other cities. COX comes as another good alternative, although it does not offer fiber connections.
The third and final alternative for fast internet is EarthLink, but is even less available than the first two —but it does offer fiber internet.