Illinois

On August 15, Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) signed the Electrical Service Broadband Deployment and Access Law, which allows electric cooperatives that receive state or federal funding to improve broadband service to use existing electric easements and road rights-of-way to install the infrastructure in grant areas, subject to specific notification and compensation requirements for property owners. The bill’s purpose is to improve broadband access in unserved and underserved areas by providing electric cooperatives with more flexibility in infrastructure deployment.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau denied Mercury Wireless Indiana, Mercury Wireless Kansas, and Mercury Broadband’s (collectively Mercury) request for waiver of the Commission’s rules, which governs the recovery of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) support when recipients do not fulfill the program’s buildout requirements. The Bureau finds that Mercury did not demonstrate that good cause supports reducing the required support recovery for Mercury’s RDOF defaults in Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio. Mercury originated in Kansas and

On June 6, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration released a Policy Notice & 

A group of representatives from Illinois, led by Sen Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), wrote to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick regarding the termination of the Digital Equity Act. The group objected to the cancellation of the funding and urged Secretary Lutnick to reinstate the funding immediately. "Congress recognized that broadband access and digital literacy are increasingly critical for employment, education, healthcare and participation in the broader economy.

Surf Internet is kicking off construction of a new fiber-optic network that will bring high-speed internet to 145 addresses across the Village of Troy Grove (IL)––including apartment units, municipal buildings, businesses, and dozens of single-family homes. Construction is expected to be completed later in the summer of 2025.

In mid-May, the Trump Administration, through U.S. Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), terminated the Digital Equity Capacity Program. In Illinois, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) was in the process of implementing a Digital Equity Capacity Grant under this Program.

Top broadband leaders in Illinois are concerned that changes to the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program could leave rural communities unconnected. Mandated changes—if they come from either Congress or the U.S. Department of Commerce—could force states to rerun their entire BEAD sub-grantee selection processes.

The Illinois Waterway (ILWW) Ports Commission is a special government district serving ten rural, riverfront counties in Central and North Central Illinois. ILWW recently wrote to members of the Illinois Congressional delegation to stress that rural Illinois residents have gone too long without adequate broadband access. "The ILWW Ports Commission simply cannot be a modern, sustainable, rural, regional, multi-modal, inland port without broadband access.