High-speed, fiber-optic broadband internet is coming to more than 1,300 unserved and underserved locations in rural Knox County.
The expansion is the result of investments by the Knox County board that led to more than $12 million in state grants and a total investment of $17 million, including what local and national internet providers will contribute.
“You can’t overstate the importance of this investment to the economic vitality and the quality of life in rural Knox County,” said David Amor, the county’s broadband coordinator. “Whether you’re talking about precision agriculture, access to telehealth services, or possibilities for remote learning, high-speed internet is now just as essential as electricity to our 21st century lives.”
Amor served on the county board during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the county was awarded $9.4 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds, Amor suggested using part of the money to give local matches to providers willing to invest in broadband in Knox County.
The county board allocated $2.4 million of ARPA funds to the broadband initiative in March 2022 and a broadband steering team was convened.
The team conducted a community survey to learn more about connectivity, speeds, and reliability of connections across the county and received 1,100 responses. They found that people with fiber optic coverage were satisfied but others were frustrated by download speeds and signals being dropped.
“A number of people talked about trying to work from home or trying to have their kids do things from home, and they would run into insuperable problems, because they didn’t have the capacity to just go back and buy a higher download speed,” Amor said.
In 2023, the team invited regional internet service providers to submit plans for expansion. Grants were awarded to Oneida Telephone Exchange, Frontier, NextLink, and Mid-Century Communications.
The county’s investment led to Illinois Connect broadband infrastructure grants totaling more than $12 million. Combined with more than $4.8 million in investments from Oneida Telephone Exchange and Frontier, that makes up the $17 million total investment in rural broadband.
“This is an essential investment in our county’s future,” said board chair Jared Hawkinson. “The Knox County board is proud to partner with Oneida Telephone, Frontier, and the state of Illinois to connect rural homes and businesses to fast, reliable internet.”
Oneida Telephone Exchange’s projects will cover locations in Rio and Henderson townships, while Frontier’s projects will be focused on Chestnut, Cedar, and Indian Point townships near Abingdon.
Amor said, together, the projects will bring fiber connectivity to more than 65% unserved or underserved locations in Knox County. And it will reduce the remaining areas without reliable, fast internet connections in Knox County to a “series of pockets,” he said.
“Some of them are larger than others,” Amor said. “There are areas out between Knoxville and Victoria in the strip-mining areas that are still unserved.”
The Knox County broadband expansion comes as access took a hit earlier this year with the discontinuation of the FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program.
ACP provided a federal subsidy to afford broadband internet service to around 10,000 households in west central Illinois.
“The failure to renew ACP was literally a tragedy,” Amor said. “It has had an impact on tens of millions of Americans.”
There are efforts to revive the program, but with narrower eligibility criteria.
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