Illinois to benefit from federal broadband push

I had a fascinating conversation this week with Walter Czerniak, Northern Illinois University's associate vice president of information technology.

I talked to Czerniak after the university announced that it been awarded a $68.5 million grant to build a broadband network throughout northwest Illinois.

At first glance, while it is great news for the university and the underserved counties that will be affected, the grant doesn't have much to do with the greater Chicago area.

But Czerniak tells me the grant is just one part of a statewide strategy to build interconnecting broadband networks throughout rural areas in Illinois.

So far, the federal government has awarded about $292.5 million to broadband projects throughout Illinois, according to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

That's part of $4.7 billion in federal stimulus funding that is being used to expand broadband networks across the United States.

Other local projects funded under the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program include $11.9 million in infrastructure in DeKalb County, where NIU's main campus is located and $16 million for projects in Chicago.

The largest federal grant in Illinois, for $62.5 million (NIU's $68.5 million grant includes state and local funds), will help fund work on a nationwide network that will connect medical facilities and research institutions to facilitate the rapid sharing of knowledge.

Some of the funding awarded through the national broadband initiative, Czerniak says, will allow hospitals to transmit medical records to the federal government (for prompt payment under the new health care reform) and enable health care facilities to share complex data like CT scans and MRIs with the experts who can properly diagnose medical conditions.

The new networks that are being built now and over the next two years will, by design, connect to existing broadband networks in neighboring areas.

Besides allowing government agencies and hospitals to access information quickly and potentially enabling private citizens and businesses to tap into high-speed Internet service, the expanded broadband may also be a boon for Illinois' sagging employment.

"Most of that money is going to be to buy fiber and put the fiber in the ground," Czerniak said. "It's going to create quite a few jobs in the state of Illinois."