Planning for a ‘Broadband Breakthrough’ – Rural Illinois Counties Prepare for ‘Once-in-a-Generation’ Funding Opportunity

Peggy Braffet and her husband think about broadband a lot. When guests show up to their pick-your-own berry farm, they sometimes expect to be able to pay with credit cards, but the Braffets' slow internet connection won't allow it. The Braffet’s frustration, compounded by the fact that neighbors just a half-mile away have fast internet, reflects that of many rural Illinois residents. An influx of federal dollars included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 may offer a path forward, and some Illinois county and business leaders are readying themselves for investment with a new program from the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society. Within Illinois, internet service providers, called ISPs, will submit applications to help pay for the construction of new internet lines. Counties that went through the Broadband Breakthrough program created plans that outlined how they’d target infrastructure money, giving the counties and their chosen ISP partners an advantage in the application process, said Adrianne B. Furniss, the Benton Institute’s executive director. In Hancock County, at least two internet service providers have already applied for and will continue to apply for broadband expansion grants as the federal dollars become available, said Samantha Harnack, executive director of Hancock County Economic Development. Those relationships, and having a concrete plan in place for expansion, are key to being approved, she said. “The state is 100% not going to give anyone a grant that doesn’t have their ducks in a row,” Harnack said. “The federal government, same thing.”