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Stimulus money could boost area's high-speed Internet network
NORMAL, Feb 11, 2010 (The Pantagraph - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
A coalition promoting better high-speed Internet connections in Central Illinois is hoping to get $20 million for improving service, which advocates say would boost the area's economy.
"What's important isn't the network itself, but what it could allow us to do" as a region, said Scott Genung, Illinois State University telecommunications and networking director.
He's the lead organizer of the Central Illinois Regional Broadband Network, which seeks a slice of the $7.2 billion set aside in last year's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to improve Internet connectivity in rural America.
Marty Vanags, who heads the Economic Development Council of the Bloomington-Normal Area, will join network supporters for a public informational meeting Friday at ISU.
"From every economic development aspect, this is a great concept," said Vanags.
The proposed network's capacity and ability to offer low-cost connections would attract new companies to the area, offer existing local businesses new opportunities, and strengthen educational institutions' research and teaching capabilities, he said.
ISU leads the proposal, said Genung, because for the last decade the campus has served as a regional host of a state-supported, high-speed network called the Illinois Century Network.
The state's debt means it's unable to expand the ICN's reach into rural McLean County, he said. The proposed network would incorporate the ICN.
The competition for the federal grants is fierce, but Genung said he's confident ISU will succeed.
Its proposal offers a plan for long-term success and it meets a call for "comprehensive communities," he said. That includes more than 30 partners, including city and small-town government, colleges, school districts, nonprofit agencies and commercial entities.
The grant proposal seeks 70 percent of the total from the federal government, and offers a 20 percent matching state grant. The remaining 10 percent would come from network partners.
Genung said partners would divide the $1.6 million annual operating cost.
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GO!
What: Central Illinois Regional Broadband Network informational meeting
When: 1 p.m. Friday
Where: Illinois State University Alumni Center, 1101 N. Main St., Normal
Details: Free and open to the public. To learn more, visit http://www.cirbn.org
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