The Connect Illinois Broadband Grant Program represents an integral and strategic component of both the comprehensive 2019 Rebuild Illinois infrastructure program and the state's five-year economic plan to expand economic opportunity and reduce socioeconomic gaps through equity investment.
Through multiple rounds of competitive matching grants, Connect Illinois seeks to achieve what no other state or federal approach to date has accomplished: ubiquitous broadband access for homes, businesses, and community anchor institutions. At the same time, Connect Illinois seeks progress in digital literacy, adoption, and inclusion while leveraging investment in new broadband infrastructure to spur advances in such areas as economic development, education, precision agriculture, and telehealth.
Given the acute broadband connectivity challenges facing Illinoisans as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Connect Illinois program is designed to provide reliable, high-quality, and fully scalable broadband service for Illinoisans anywhere, anytime – regardless of uses, number of users, or number of connected devices. As the nation's largest state broadband grant program, Connect Illinois is poised to make strategic investments that will serve Illinoisans well and position the state to thrive as bandwidth needs change.
Applications should be classified under one of four categories:
- Broadband Access for Illinois homes, businesses, and community anchor institutions in unserved or underserved areas;
- Broadband Equity for projects with demonstrable need based upon project economics or residential socioeconomic factors, such as poverty, unemployment, or broadband adoption rates;
- Broadband Innovation for economic development and related applications; or
- Urban Broadband for access, equity and/or innovation in qualified Illinois cities or metropolitan areas of 75,000 residents or more.
Applicants must submit a project narrative that describes in detail how the award will be executed. The project narrative should include enough information for DCEO to understand the scope of the project, the budget, including a detailed breakdown of the costs associated with each budget line and any additional necessary detail to enable DCEO to manage the grant agreement activity against planned project performance.