McClatchy News Service

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.

Chattanooga (TN) offers the fastest Internet connections in America along fiber-optic links stringing out from a revitalized downtown. But urban planners taking part in the Vanguard Next City conference still found physical and economic barriers separating the central city and its Gig technology with nearby neighborhoods, especially the Westside.

The barriers are both physical and economic. To get to nearby businesses and jobs, many of those living in the College Hill Courts public housing project cut through a chained-link fence and walked through a field to cross US Highway 27 and connect with downtown. And many Westside residents can’t afford Chattanooga’s superfast Internet.

But that could change if the city implements the winning suggestions from the Chattanooga Challenge that ended the fifth annual Next City conference. A team of government and civic leaders from across the country suggested that Chattanooga offer free Wi-Fi service to College Hill Courts to bridge the digital divide and develop a new pathway to connect downtown and the neighborhood.