Lenore Sobota

A nearly $100 million, four-year project to connect 55 counties to a high-speed broadband network has been a boon to education, public safety and the economy, Gov Pat Quinn (D-IL) said.

“This is a little like building the interstate highway system when I was growing up,” Gov Quinn said. “Now we have to have an information superhighway system.”

Overall, more than 1,000 new miles of high-speed fiber-optic broadband infrastructure was installed as part of the project, which was financed by $62 million in federal broadband stimulus funds, $24 million from the state's Illinois Jobs Now! capital program and nearly $10 million in other university, local government and private resources.