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Small rural communities throughout the state will soon have the opportunity to utilize high-speed Internet access.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich Wednesday signed a bill that provides economic resources to local governments to develop high-speed Internet in areas larger companies have not.
Rep. Constance Howard, D-Chicago, one of the sponsors of the bill, said the digital divide is great not just in urban communities, where high-speed Internet may not be economically viable, but also in smaller communities that have not been given access to the newer technologies.
"My understanding is that those people in those areas suffer almost as much as we do in the inner city," she said. "We don't for economic reasons, and they don't because they lack the infrastructure."
Howard said the bill provides $11 million for local governments to build an infrastructure for high-speed Internet, like cable and DSL lines. She said the communities could tap into the Illinois Century Network, which provides internet-access to schools and libraries around the state, though it is not a requirement of the bill.
Howard said the money is there, waiting to be used.
"Initially, we were going to collect $5 million for three years, but no one decided to use it," Howard said. "The governor took $4 million from the first year when he was looking for money to fill the budget, but the two subsequent years, it gets $5 million, and he has indicated that he will not touch the money."
The bill branches on previous legislation that used the money as economic incentives for companies willing to provide high-speed Internet access to Illinois' smaller communities.
"The money was initially to allow service providers a way to come in and help communities," Howard said. "But there was no action or no activity occurred, but they never decided to wave any rights to deal with it.
"They said, 'We won't, let someone else.' That made it possible to virtually ask them to step out of the way and let other entities take it."
Andrew White, president of Neon Internet in Carbondale, said his company will expand service to 32 communities by the end of August. However, there are certain criteria a community must meet before the company will set up shop in the area.
He said that based on Verizon's formula, which owns most of the equipment needed to provide high-speed access to a community, the town must have about 300 active phone lines before they will provide service.
He said it is not economically feasible for the company to use its equipment in small towns, so they must wait until Verizon takes the initiative. Even so, he said 300 active lines is considerably less than needed in past years.
"Once all of those towns have service, we would review again," he said.
