LUS Fiber is ready to provide Internet service to business customers in about 20 percent of the city of Lafayette, officials announced at a Wednesday news conference.

For the past several month, the Lafayette Convention and Visitors Center has served as a test site for the service, and so far, the results have been positive, LCVC Executive Director Gerald Breaux said.

"With the speed it has, it's really taken a lot of worry and uncertainty off of our backs," he said, adding that his office is running about 25 computers at any one time. "It's helped our staff manage their daily routine much, much better."

The Internet for business will be offered in areas where residential customers can also sign up for Internet, telephone and television service through LUS Fiber. Lafayette Utilities System Director Terry Huval said all areas of the city should be ready for service by next June, several months ahead of schedule.

Businesses will be able to choose from three different upload and download speeds for Internet service. A connection of 10 megabits per second will be $64.95 per month, a connection of 50 megabits per second is $119.95 per month and a connection of 100 megabits per second is $199.95.

The service includes e-mail addresses, a ZoneAlarm security suite and access to a 100 megabits per second peer-to-peer Intranet. Customers can also purchase static IP addresses.

"The thing that has been the driving force behind this always has been economic development," Lafayette City-Parish President Joey Durel said. "I want to thank the people of Lafayette for their confidence and thank them for their entrepreneurial spirit by doing something to promote economic development."

The press conference also included a demonstration comparing LUS Fiber's Internet speeds to that of an unidentified other local provider, which appeared to show LUS Fiber's connection to be significantly faster, even when handling large files such as videos.

Patricia Parks, public affairs specialist for Cox Communications, the other major Internet provider in Acadiana, noted that in the past four years, Cox Business has invested more than $12 million in its commercial fiber infrastructure in Lafayette and Acadiana.

"Not just in Lafayette, but across Acadiana today, we have fiber customers who are experiencing dedicated speeds of up to 100 mbps," Parks said. "Our fully-redundant fiber ring allows us to connect multiple locations of any business within the region. This allows Cox Business to serve all businesses with a private fiber network to serve all of their locations in Lafayette, Acadiana, south Louisiana and throughout the national Cox footprint."