City unveils plan for free Wi-Fi, wider super-fast Internet

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration is unveiling the first portion of a much-anticipated initiative to position Chicago for the digital age with expanded access to ultra-high-speed broadband links.

The two-pronged plan, dubbed the "broadband challenge," seeks private partners to bring relatively low-cost, gigabit-speed Internet to 15 emerging business zones, most of them academic centers outside the Loop, and to offer free Wi-Fi in every park in the city. To lure private parties, the city is talking about leasing its own infrastructure — streets that are being torn up for sewer projects, unused fiber lines in Chicago Transit Authority subway tubes, light and utility poles, etc. — on likely favorable terms. As a down payment of sorts, the city is announcing its first deal involving a park. Effective immediately, free Wi-Fi will be available throughout Millennium Park as part of a deal struck with SilverIP Communications, a Chicago firm that claims to offer the fastest Internet service in the country.