Broadband Breakthrough
In early 2023, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society piloted the Broadband Breakthrough program in five Illinois counties with support from the United Soybean Board. This report follows their journey to pursue a better broadband future.
With the help of our many collaborators, we designed the program to increase communities’ ability to stimulate broadband infrastructure investment that supports larger community goals such as economic development, telehealth delivery, precision agriculture, distance learning, and civic engagement.
Illinois Soybean Association provided further funding to continue the program in Illinois in 2024 for the twelve counties that enrolled in the second and third cohorts.
In February 2025, we began a fourth cohort of the program funded with the support of the Illinois Broadband Lab, a collaboration of the Illinois Office of Broadband and the University of Illinois System. We added Reid Consulting Group to the team to provide critical data to the seven counties that enrolled.
By clicking on each of the Cohort links below, you can read about the accomplishments of the 24 Illinois counties who graduated from Broadband Breakthrough.
These collaborators helped communities understand their broadband needs, assets, and options.
Broadband Breakthrough Cohort 4 was made possible with support from the Illinois Broadband Lab, a collaboration of the Illinois Office of Broadband and the University of Illinois System.
The Illinois Soybean Association introduced the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society to the Illinois State University researchers, fostered a relationship with the Illinois Farm Bureau, provided convening space and support for the second and third cohorts, and leveraged its network of 43,000 soy farmers for essential communications outreach.
A research team at Illinois State University (ISU), through funding support from the Illinois Innovation Network, provided two open-source tools that helped communities quantify the value of high-performance broadband based on its impact on the farming economy (corn and soy production) and mapped vertical assets that might be used while deploying wireless broadband networks.
Reid Consulting Group (RCG) has worked in both urban and rural settings to conduct last-mile and middle-mile feasibility, planning, and engineering projects for councils of government, state agencies, ISPs, electric utilities, and local governments. RCG fiber projects exceed 6,000 miles across 18 states with a total project value of $1.6 billion supported by $330 million in grants.
RCG worked with the Benton Institute to implement the Broadband Breakthrough program in 12 counties in Missouri with the support of the Ford Foundation.
University of Illinois Extension helped communities create surveys that asked residents about the quality of their broadband service, including speeds. Illinois Extension analyzed survey results for the communities and educated them on how to use the data.
A Wireless Research Center report helped communities assess the benefits and challenges of various modes of wireless broadband in a rural setting as a supplement to wired connectivity.
