IBOP- Project Partners

Illinois Broadband Opportunity Partnership – East Central Region
The Illinois Department of Central Management Services plans to deploy a high-speed fiber middle mile network across a 55-county region of northeastern, central, and eastern Illinois to address a lack of suitable broadband access for community anchor institutions in many of the region’s rural, economically distressed counties.  The Illinois Broadband Opportunity Partnership project plans to construct more than 1,000 miles of new fiber while upgrading just over 1,000 miles of the state’s existing education network, Illinois Century Network (ICN), which provides a gateway to advanced online applications for K-12 schools, libraries, and non-research higher education institutions.  The project also proposes to interconnect with two round one BTOP awardees:  DeKalb County’s DeKalb Advancement of Technology Authority Broadband project and University of Illinois Board of Trustees’ Urbana-Champaign Big Broadband project.
Contact:  Lori.Sorenson@illinois.gov

Urbana-Champaign Big Broadband
The Urbana-Champaign Big Broadband project plans to construct 187 miles of fiber-optic broadband network to provide high-speed connectivity to area community anchor institutions and support fiber-to-the-home services in four low-income neighborhoods.  Known as a leader in computer networking technology, the University of Illinois plans to bring its experience to bear as it works to close the digital divide in Urbana-Champaign.  The project will directly connect 143 anchor institutions, including 40 K-12 schools, 17 social service agencies, 14 healthcare facilities, nine youth centers, four public library systems, and two higher education institutions.  A majority of these institutions expect to receive their first high-speed Internet connection via this project.  The project proposes to create a fiber-to-the-home pilot project for 2,500 low-income households to purchase an affordable high-speed Internet service plan from commercial providers.  In addition, the project expects to spur affordable broadband Internet access for local consumers, including up to 50,000 households and 3,700 businesses, by enabling local Internet service providers to connect to the project’s open network.

DeKalb Advancement of Technology Authority Broadband
The DeKalb Advancement of Technology Authority (DATA) Broadband project, a partnership between the DeKalb County Government, Northern Illinois University, and DeKalb Fiber Optic, plans to deploy a 130-mile fiber-optic network across DeKalb County and northern LaSalle County.  The project is targeted to reach areas with a demonstrated need for high-speed, low-cost broadband access.  The project expects to provide high-speed Internet connections between 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps to at least 60 anchor institutions, such as schools, hospitals, libraries, public safety entities, and numerous government agencies.  The project will also enable broadband providers to interconnect with these facilities to provide broadband to households and businesses in unserved and underserved communities.  The project design includes five networks overlaid on the fiber optic system — each network will be designed to meet the needs of a specific community:  education and libraries, healthcare, the farming community, government and emergency services, and business and economic development.

Harrisburg, IL - It was announced today that Delta Communications, LLC, dba Clearwave Communications, a southern Illinois company headquartered in Harrisburg, has been awarded $31.5 million in grant funds from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) under the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).  Through this project, Clearwave Communications will deploy a high-speed fiber middle mile network across a 23-county region of southern Illinois to address the lack of adequate broadband access for community anchor institutions in many of the region’s rural, economically distressed counties.  The State of Illinois, through the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO), is also supporting the project by pledging over $11 million in matching funds.  Additional private funding brings this southern Illinois project total to over $45 million.

Over the next three years Clearwave will construct an estimated 740 miles of new fiber optic cable in southern Illinois to connect over 200 community anchor institutions with speeds between 10 Mbps and 1 Gbps, including K-12 public schools and institutions of higher learning, public safety entities, libraries, and healthcare facilities.  Additionally, the project includes plans to offer points of interconnection for last-mile providers in the proposed service area.

1. This project is part of the Illinois Broadband Opportunities Partnership (IBOP), in which Clearwave will be interconnecting with the Illinois Century Network (ICN), which provides a gateway to Internet2 for K-12 schools, libraries and non-research higher education institutions.  Additionally, the funding will provide the Counties of Southern Illinois Next Generation 9-1-1 (CSI NG911), a consortium of Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs), the network needed to facilitate the implementation of the nation’s first standards-based NG 9-1-1 public safety system.
2. “This is a great opportunity, not just for Clearwave, but for the entire region”, says Clearwave’s president and founder, Scott Riggs.  “This network will not only provide much needed connectivity to crucial community institutions, it will be a catalyst for desperately needed economic development in the area.”

Clearwave Communications is a facilities-based Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) that has been providing advanced network services, primarily to businesses and community anchor institutions, and has been in business since 1995.  Clearwave has locations in Harrisburg, Marion, and Carbondale.  It currently serves 1,100 business customers throughout southern Illinois.  [Map] ICN Letter Regarding Clearwave Communication IBOP-South

Contact:  Mike Phalin (618) 294-8000
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Clearwave-Broadband/146218612103099
Twitter:  http://twitter.com/ClearwaveBB
YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/ClearwaveBroadband

www.ifiber.org

Illinois Fiber Resources Group (IFiber) was developed to address the issue of limited broadband capacity, speed, and service in 9 counties of northwest Illinois.  Construction of the $69 million iFiber project is underway as part of the National Telecommunications and Information Agency’s Broadband Technology Opportunity Program.

iFiber is a collaboration of representatives from Northern Illinois University, LaSalle County, North Central Illinois Council of Governments, the City of Rockford, Boone County and Blackhawk Hills RC&D.  The grant is administered by Northern Illinois University and is an Illinois Broadband Opportunity Partner (IBOP).  iFiber’s partners are working to expand broadband access throughout a 900-mile fiber network in Boone, Carroll, Jo Daviess, LaSalle, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson, Whiteside and Winnebago counties.

iFiber is a provider of extremely high speed (1Gb) network transport services to both the public and private sector.  It provides subsidized access directly to eligible public sector organizations such as schools, community colleges, libraries, healthcare facilities, municipalities, county and public safety facilities.  Through iFiber’s Service Provider partners, it also promotes similar high speed network transport services to businesses and residential subscribers in the private sector.

Lisa Bergeron, Grant Director, (815) 753-0924 lbergeron@niu.edu
John Lewis, Chairman of the iFiber Board, (815) 753-0936 jlewis@niu.edu

• 9/24/2011 - Kirkland about to get wired (pdf) - DeKalb Daily Chronicle
• 9/23/2011 - iFiber work progresses in Dixon, Rock Falls
• 9/22/2011 - Roscoe leaders see fiber-optic deal as business incentive (pdf) - Rockford Register Star
• 9/22/2011 - iFiber work progresses in Belvidere, Rockford
• 8/31/2011 - Broadband project officially under way:  Hicks speaks (pdf) - The Times
• 8/29/2011 - WREX TV video of iFiber Groundbreaking
• 8/29/2011 - iFiber Groundbreaking Event Aug. 29
• Aug/2011 - iFiber selects Aldridge Electric and Kelso-Burnett for broadband network
• July/2011 - iFiber selects PirTano Construction for fiber network construction