State of Illinois funds Gigabit Squared broadband project in Chicago

Oct. 16, 2012
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn has announced an award of $2 million under the state’s Illinois Gigabit Communities Challenge program to Gigabit Squared. The awardee, which works in partnership with the national Gig.U broadband effort, will deploy fiber and wireless infrastructure in Chicago’s Mid-South Side under the auspices of its Gigabit Neighborhood Gateway Program (GNGP).

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn has announced an award of $2 million under the state’s Illinois Gigabit Communities Challenge program to Gigabit Squared. The awardee, which works in partnership with the national Gig.U broadband effort, will deploy fiber and wireless infrastructure in Chicago’s Mid-South Side under the auspices of its Gigabit Neighborhood Gateway Program (GNGP).

The $2 million, which will come from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, will provide initial funding for the project. The University of Chicago has pledged an additional $1 million and will help raise another $1 million for the Woodlawn community. Gigabit Squared and investors in the GNGP will kick in an additional $5 million.

The initial phase of the roll out will see 4,825 residents, businesses, and anchor institutions connected with a fiber-optic network. Based on neighborhood participation and adoption, the gigabit broadband access infrastructure could subsequently be made available to as many as 210,000 residents who live in over 79,000 households as well as the 10,000 commercial businesses in the Mid-South Side area.

“Smart communities will foster the job engines of the future," said Governor Quinn. “To win in the information economy, we need information infrastructure that is second to none. Through the Gigabit Communities Challenge, Illinois will build stronger, smarter communities with Internet connections more than 100 times faster than they are today."

“When we developed the Gigabit Neighborhood Gateway Program, it was exactly this type of neighborhood partnership we envisioned,” said Mark Ansboury, president of Gigabit Squared. “Bringing the University of Chicago, the State of Illinois, the City of Chicago and individual neighborhoods, as well as Cook County together, we’re able to do what none of us could do individually – build a platform for economic development and business creation on the Mid-South Side of Chicago.”

Over the next year, fiber and wireless broadband capacity will reach the neighborhoods of Hyde Park, Kenwood, Woodlawn, and Washington Park as well as serve community anchor institutions. Over the next four years South Shore, Greater Grand Crossing, Grand Boulevard, Douglas, and Oakland will be served initially by gigabit-speed wireless.

This is the first demonstration project of the GNGP, which Gigabit Squared hopes will bring similar projects in six selected university communities across the country. The $200 million broadband program was developed in partnership with The University Community Next Generation Innovation Project (Gig.U).

Sponsored Recommendations

Transforming the metro network and the evolution of the "Digital Service Provider"

March 4, 2025
Join experts at EXFO and Ekinops in this webinar that will review the evolving metro-centric requirements and the technologies emerging to meet them.

Innovations Optical Transceivers

March 10, 2025
The continual movement around artificial intelligence (AI) cluster environments is driving new sales of optical transceiver sales and the adoption of linear pluggable optics (...

Unveiling the Synergy Between AI and Optical Networking

March 12, 2025
Join us for an engaging discussion with industry experts on the intersection of AI and optics. Moderated by Sean Buckley, editor-in-chief of Lightwave+BTR, this panel will explore...

ON TOPIC: Filling Coverage Gaps, Enhancing Public Safety

Jan. 30, 2025
With the ongoing drive to support AI and the need for high-speed data center interconnection, the call for higher-speed 800G optical technology is emerging. Initially focused ...