The City of Carrollton was 1 of 12 communities in the state to receive grant money to implement a broadband Internet accessibility plan.
The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity’s Office of Broadband announced today its second cohort of the Illinois Connected Communities grant program. Carrollton and the other 11 communities have been granted $15,000 to create a strategic plan to build broadband capacity in its city limits. The grant program is aimed at some of the state’s most under-served areas when it comes to Internet broadband access.
The grant will provide the city access to best-practice curriculum and more than 50 hours of consultation and community planning facilitation over the next 12 months. Governor J.B. Pritzker said in the announcement that he hopes to have every corner of the state connected to broadband Internet access by 2024.
The money for the entire second cohort of the program was a 50/50 partnership between the state and philanthropic support from the Evanston, Illinois-based Benton Institute for Broadband & Society and other unnamed local entities.