Illinois Seeks Public Support for Broadband Plan

Back in April, Illinois enacted legislation, the Broadband Infrastructure Advancement Act (P.A. 102-0699), that requires overarching procedures to make use of coming federal monies to support broadband deployment projects. The new law requires the Illinois Office of Broadband to establish program eligibility and selection criteria by administrative rules for any grants for broadband deployment, broadband expansion, broadband access, broadband affordability, and broadband improvement projects. The administrative rules will establish programmatic information, including addressing application requirements and eligibility criteria. The Illinois Office of Broadband now seeks comment on its proposed rules that aim to create added certainty in advance of federal funding available to the state through the American Rescue Plan Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Comments in the proceeding are due Monday, November 21.