Illinois a Leader in Broadband Internet Coverage
Ann Strahle, Springfield Business Journal
Published: September 1, 2014
Illinois is one of the most connected states in the country, according to a state-run nonprofit organization. But depending on what the Federal Communications Commission decides regarding net neutrality, the price of that Internet connectivity may go up.
Phil Halstead, executive director of Partnership of a Connected Illinois (PCI), said the state was recognized at a national conference earlier this summer as a leader in providing broadband Internet access to all citizens. The nonprofit state agency started in 2008 with the help of then Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn. The original goals included mapping broadband availability across the state as well as providing expertise and financial avenues for those without broadband access.
“The DCEO (Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity) has tasked us to assemble graphically who has the e-commerce resources – who are the firms and businesses, and how we understand e-commerce,” said Halstead.
Internet providers across the state such as Comcast provide Partnership of a Connected Illinois with the data denoting where broadband connectivity is available.
“Driving broadband availability and adoption is a daily goal, and Comcast spends millions in Illinois each and every year to enhance our best in class network,” Comcast Communications Director Joe Trost said. “We’ve been able to increase speeds more than a dozen times over the past decade.”
PCI has made it easy for anyone to go to its website, type in an address, and learn what kind of broadband is available. In the six years of data collection, the number of people and businesses with broadband availability has drastically increased.
Brian Webster, the telecom data director from PCI said, “Not including cellular or satellite technology, 88 percent of households in Illinois have access to broadband connectivity of 100 megabits or more. However .29 percent have no access to broadband at any level.”
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration provided PCI with $6.5 million in funding from 2009-2014. Facing the end of that revenue stream, PCI was able to obtain $700,000 from the Department of Commerce to keep the organization running until April 30, 2015.
With this new revenue, the goals of PCI include continuing the broadband mapping center for the state as well as serving as a broadband public information center. Newer goals entail increasing broadband availability for businesses, schools and libraries.
“The goal is to position Illinois for successful e-commerce and web-based business. That is the future role of PCI – jobs, prosperity and growing the job base,” Halstead said. “There are businesses around Illinois that are doing e-commerce that we don’t know about. Our goal is to ind them and help them get the talent and skills needed to grow them as businesses.”
Halstead said the organization will work within educational sectors in order to identify and connect the least-connected schools. “Schools, health care, the public safety network, libraries, agriculture –we’re going to find out where the gaps are in broadband coverage,” Halstead said.
And as the debate continues on whether private corporations can control the pricing of Internet connectivity, the availability of cheap Internet service is a priority for educational institutions and public libraries. Nancy Huntley, director of Springfield’s Lincoln Library, emphasized the high usage of their public computers. “In fiscal year 2013, there were 40,300 Internet sessions at the main branch. A session can last a half-hour to two hours,” said Huntley.
Internet connectivity may face changes at the national level, as the Federal Communications Commission will soon choose whether to allow private corporations such as Comcast and Time Warner to control pricing and the availability of broadband to its customers, or to make the Internet a public utility, such as the hard-wired telephone technology of the past. This is at the heart of the discussion concerning net neutrality.
A lot has been written about the possible impact of the FCC’s eventual decision, which is scheduled to happen at the end of this year or the beginning of next. If the regulatory commission sides with the private corporations, prices could go up for your Internet service, and certain streaming channels such as Netflix or Amazon may be slowed down or blocked. The increased prices could have serious financial implications for public entities such as libraries or schools. From the other point of view, businesses and private corporations see classifying the Internet as a public utility as the death of broadband investment.
Comcast issued a statement saying it does not support the reclassification of broadband as a telecommunications service or public service. The company said doing so would create a huge cloud of uncertainty over the entire broadband industry, thereby retarding investment and innovation.
More than a million people wrote to the FCC regarding net neutrality. Those comments will be taken into account as the decision draws closer. Meanwhile, the efforts to increase broadband accessibility to all continue. To find out your broadband availability, or to learn more about the Partnership for a Connected Illinois, just go to broadbandillinois.org.
Ann Strahle is an assistant professor in the Communication Department at University of Illinois Springfield, teaching courses such as Media Law and Ethics, News Reporting, Advertising and Interviewing. Prior to her position at UIS, she was a television and radio reporter and anchor for 16 years and taught at Indiana University’s School of Journalism.