iFiber participates in regional eTeam planning

iFiber March Newsletter
Published: March 1, 2013
Related to: Northwest eTeam

The following article appeared in the March 2013 edition of iFiber's newsletter.

Click here to download the full publication. 

iFiber participates in regional eTeam planning

iFiber is among regional stakeholders that have been meeting regularly since January 2012 as part of the Northwest Illinois eTeam.Coordinated by Broadband Illinois,10 regional eTeams are involved in several primary areas, including convening stakeholders, aggregating demand and identifying supply side solutions. The objective is to assemble a regional network that will result in an organized system for the ongoing development of broadband access and adoption throughout Illinois.

The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) requires Broadband Illinois to “build and facilitate in each county or designated region a local technology planning team.” These eCommunity Leadership Teams, or eTeams, are for the purpose of developing “a technology growth plan that encompasses all relevant sectors of the community.

”The existing overall broadband landscape in Illinois falls into several eTeam regions—iFiber works with both the Northwest Illinois and Northern Illinois eTeams. Visit www.broadbandillinois.org to view a map of all 10 eTeam regions. 

The eTeams are made up of existing regional initiatives and resulting significant broadband infrastructure projects like iFiber.The Northwest eTeam met in February to identify and develop strategies for educating intended users about broadband, in addition to developing a regional plan to build on private and public broadband deployments throughout the region.

At the February meeting held in Princeton and facilitated by University of Illinois Extension staff, iFiber was represented in addition to representatives from area municipalities, school districts and Internet providers. Small group break-out sessions allowed for discussion to identify goals for future action.

iFiber’s project manager, Matt Parks, and public relations coordinator, Kathy Siebrasse, participated in a session focused on equipment access and providing redundancy for broadband service. Things like off-site storage and disaster recovery were discussed.The Northwest eTeam will continue to meet throughout 2013 to help provide regional and statewide efforts for promoting broadband. For more information, visit the Broadband Illinois website or e-mail ksiebrasse@ifiber.org.