(The Center Square) – With taxpayer-funded federal infrastructure money funneling into the Illinois state budget, a new report says rural farming communities must act now to pursue a better broadband future.
The Biden administration announced in June that all 50 states will share a total of $42.5 billion in Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program funding. The funding comes from the bipartisan infrastructure law and must be used for broadband deployment.
The Benton Institute for Broadband and Society has released a planning roadmap on ways to pursue the funding. Executive Director Adrianna Furniss said Illinois is going to receive over $1 billion to build broadband infrastructure.
“In mostly areas that have, let’s just say lousy broadband,” said Furniss. “Obviously a lot of the communities that are in rural Illinois are the ones who suffer from that bad broadband and so the money will be allocated to those communities first.”
Over 16 weeks, Edgar, Hancock, McLean, Ogle and Schuyler counties used broadband maps from the Illinois Office of Broadband, surveys and speed tests administered by University of Illinois Extension, and new open-source tools from researchers at Illinois State University to understand their broadband needs, assets and options.
The report takes a look at the journey of the counties that enrolled in Broadband Breakthrough, a new engagement and planning program created by the Benton Institute.
“I think the pandemic just illustrated why broadband was really important and really spurred that federal investment that is going to the state,” said Furniss.
The allocation of broadband funding has not gone without controversy. Republican members of Congress have criticized a program that gives $30 monthly broadband discounts to people with low incomes, accusing the Federal Communications Commission of being “wasteful.” They threatened to block funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program, which is expected to run out of money in April 2024.
The Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program is the federal government’s largest-ever investment in the expansion of high-speed internet access and focuses on connecting underserved and rural communities.
