Illinois

Illinois Broadband Director Matt Schmit is no newbie, nor is the state’s broadband office. In 2019, Illinois’ $45 billion capital investment plan included $400 million to fund a new broadband program that would be dubbed “Connect Illinois.” That summer, Schmit was recruited from Minnesota to stand up the office that would oversee the grant program and Illinois’ broadband efforts.

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.

Illinois is home to over 12.7 million individuals in approximately 4.9 million families who speak over 20 languages. These families live in 102 counties that range from the dense urban areas found in Cook, DuPage, and Lake counties to the rural areas in Pope and Stark counties; from Illinois’ manufacturing centers like the Quad Cities, Rockford, and Greater Peoria regions to the farmlands of Gallatin, White, and Sangamon counties. Common to all of these communities and geographies is the way they stay connected to each other and to the broader global community; how they access healthcare, e

Several organizations, led by the Illinois Soybean Association (ISA) and the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, are working on Broadband Breakthrough, a pilot program that aims to help bring federally funded high-speed connectivity to five rural Illinois counties. The idea behind the program, which is funded by United Soybean Board, is to increase the percentage of farmers with broadband by preparing a wide variety of stakeholders to apply for grant money from the federal government.

Illinoisans paid the highest state and local taxes for wireless cell phone service in the nation in 2023, spending more monthly than the combined rates of the two lowest states—Idaho and Nevada. Illinois wireless plan holders paid 23% in state and local taxes, fees and government surcharges on their monthly wireless bills in 2023. Residents in each state also paid 10.8% in federal taxes to the Universal Service Fund for cell phone service in 2023. That gave Illinois a grand total of 33.8% in government taxes on the cell bills compared to the 24.5% U.S. average.

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society's Broadband Breakthrough is a community engagement and broadband planning program focused on rural farming communities—because today, broadband is a necessary tool to innovate farming practices and allow for sustainable, targeted, and efficient resource use. The goal of Broadband Breakthrough is to help other rural farming communities understand the value of improved broadband access—and provide the resources, tools, and work required to get better broadband and chart a path for smart farming.

Lessons learned from the Technology in the Parks initiative in Columbus Park have inspired comprehensive legislation with three major components: 

1. Firstly, we propose to expand the Federal Communications Commission E-rates program to include local parks. This initiative is crucial in bringing broadband access to these community spaces, aligning with the program's existing coverage for schools and libraries.