Reimagine Chicago Broadband

Update: On November 5, 2021, Congress passed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, which includes $62 billion for broadband expansion and digital equity.

On Wednesday, October 20, 2021, Civic Exchange convened a panel of experts on broadband, internet access, and digital literacy to help answer the question: how can we ensure that everyone in Chicago has access to high speed internet?

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, what many broadband advocates had been saying for years became clear to us all: high speed internet is a necessity for modern life.

In Chicago, however, 13% of households, mostly concentrated on the South and West sides, still do not have access to the internet. 

Internet Access Map for American Cities, UChicago Center for Data and Applied Computing

With renewed attention to this issue and Federal funds allocated from the American Rescue Plan towards broadband, with potentially more infrastructure funding to come, we have a rare opportunity to build the equitable internet infrastructure Chicago desperately needs.

Civic Exchange was proud to bring together a panel of advocates and experts to discuss the current state of broadband infrastructure across the nation, the State of Illinois, and the City of Chicago. 

As a member of We Will Chicago, the City’s 3-year citywide planning initiative, Civic Exchange is excited to share the insights and recommendations from this event back to the Transportation and Infrastructure committee to inform and support the City’s official planning process.

Watch the full panel discussion on YouTube

Key takeaways from the panel discussion

• The American Rescue Plan (ARP) and the upcoming infrastructure bill both contain tens of millions of dollars in funds for broadband infrastructure. These investments represent a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to bridge the digital divide once and for all.

• This moment is an opportunity to make long term investments in our broadband infrastructure and do something bigger and bolder than we would otherwise do. If we do the same kinds of things we would have done anyway, we’ll be squandering this opportunity.

• The largest barriers to adoption are the cost of internet subscriptions and lack of digital literacy skills. Both require different approaches and programs.

• There is no “silver bullet” for eliminating the digital divide - no one technology or program that will solve this problem. Investments are needed for both long term fiber infrastructure and digital literacy skills.

• Putting fiber in places where there is none/not enough is a great investment. Even with the rollout of 5G wireless technology, deploying a 5G network requires fiber to connect to the high speed network.

• When working to increase internet access in areas with low usage, lack of trust of both government and outside organizations is a huge barrier. The best ways to address this are to work with local community partners and engage with residents directly in building solutions.

Additional resources on broadband and internet access

During our conversation, a number of links to resources were shared. Below is a compiled list of those resources.

Panelist organizations and departments:

• National Digital Inclusion Alliance - a unified voice for home broadband access, public broadband access, personal devices, and local technology training and support programs

• Connect Illinois - Broadband Expansion Program - a $400 million broadband grant program and a $20 million capital program for the Illinois Century Network, a high-speed broadband network serving K-12 and higher education institutions, among others

• Chicago Connected - a program by the City of Chicago that provides no-cost, high-speed internet service to Chicago Public Schools students and their families. See their list of community partners.

• The Enterprise Center | Community Connectivity - Chattanooga is home to EPB’s fiber optic network, which can deliver speeds up to 10-gigabits-per-second to every home and business in its 600-square-mile footprint.

• Blockshare pilot - ChiCommons - a free Wi-Fi Internet pilot project of Windsor Park Foundation and ChiCommons LWCA in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago

On the state of America’s broadband infrastructure:

• Why Your Internet Sucks | Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj

• Good internet service is still impossible for many low-income Americans

Federal funding for broadband infrastructure:

• POTs and PANs - Broadband for All

• Biden infrastructure plan calls for $100 billion to fix broadband internet

• The Digital Equity Act will create two new federal grant programs to help promote digital equity in communities across the country

• Treasury's $10 Billion Capital Projects Fund Will Advance Digital Equity

• Text of the Infrastructure Bill Is (Finally) Here, and It's Full of Good Things for Digital Inclusion

Broadband availability maps:

• National Broadband Availability Map

• FCC | Fixed Broadband Deployment Data

• Illinois Bandwidth Lab

• Internet Access Map for American Cities | CDAC

Additional broadband and internet organizations:

• Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

• Cambium Networks

• Community Networks

• Detroit Community Technology Project

• Institute for Local Self-Reliance

• NYC Mesh

• Next Century Cities

• Tech oes Home Chattanooga

• US Ignite

Thank you again to our panelists for their time and contributions to our discussion:

Paolo Balboa, Programs and Data Manager at National Digital Inclusion Alliance

Paolo began his career in public library education and outreach in 2013, first in Cleveland and most recently at the New York Public Library. He has worked with the Mozilla Foundation and a cohort of practitioners and advocates to develop a Web Literacy toolkit, and he has served as a panelist at the American Library Association Annual Conference to discuss digital literacy.

Matt Schmit, Director, Illinois Office of Broadband

Matt serves as the director of the Illinois Office of Broadband. In this capacity, he is responsible for facilitating the deployment of the Connect Illinois broadband infrastructure grant program. Schmit served as a state senator in Minnesota between 2013 and 2016.

Alvyn Walker, Leave No Veteran Behind, ChiCommons
After his own service in the military, Alvyn now supports veterans through workforce development programs that focus on technology training and youth mentorship through Leave No Veteran Behind. Alvyn also contributes to collaborative community-based connectivity initiatives to set up Wi-Fi networks in Chicago’s South Shore community through the ChiCommons BlockShare program.

Geoff Millener, Chief Operating Officer at The Enterprise Center

Geoff works in Chattanooga, Tennessee with a dynamic team and community partners leveraging the city’s unique gigabit infrastructure to develop, test, deploy and scale solutions for the 21st century, with a focus on digital inclusion, economic mobility and Smart City innovation. In the past year, he helped to launch HCS EdConnect, powered by EPB, a $15.3M, a minimum 10-year commitment to provide no-cost broadband access to every economically disadvantaged student in Hamilton County Schools, with more than 15,000 students and their families already connected.

Devon Braunstein, Digital Inclusion Policy Fellow at the City of Chicago

Devon manages the City’s broadband equity program, Chicago Connected, which has connected over 40,000 households broadband and provides digital learning resources to families citywide. Previously, she worked for the City of New York’s Department of Small Business Services and Deloitte Technology Consulting.  

Derek Eder (moderator), Partner at DataMade, President at Chi Hack Night

Derek is an entrepreneur, developer and a leader of the civic technology community in Chicago. He uses data, builds tools, and organizes people in Chicago to democratize power. Derek is Founder and Partner at DataMade, President of Chi Hack Night and has served on the transition teams for Mayor Lightfoot and Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi.