The State of Illinois has received approval from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration for its Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) plan.
One final federal grant-processing step remains before the funding is formally released.
Bond County IT Director Scott Wight said the current plan is especially important for residents of the county. He advised that every area of the county now has a path toward reliable, high-speed broadband service.
Bond County has 3,677 unserved and underserved locations currently planned to have access to fiber-to-home service.
It was noted that for a rural county like Bond, this is especially important as many of the locations left behind by previous broadband expansion were farms and rural homes, where distance and low population density made high speed wired service difficult to justify economically.
Wight added that broadband needs to be affordable, as well as available, because a connection reaching a farmhouse doesn’t solve the problem if the family can’t reasonable afford to use it.
The Illinois Office of Broadband reports it is ready to formally launch its historic 1 plus billion dollar BEAD program, which will connect more than 142,000 homes, businesses and community anchor institutions to broadband over the next five years.
