East Central Illinois Broadband Summit Held in Mattoon

Nathan Woodside
Published: December 10, 2013
Related to: Southeast Central eTeam

More than 60 broadband internet providers, stakeholders and economic development officials convened in Mattoon on Thursday for the 4th annual East Central Illinois Broadband Summit.

The event, hosted by the East Central Illinois Development Corporation (ECIDC) assisted by Partnership for a Connected Illinois (PCI), featured access updates from 16 providers, businesses and ongoing initiatives.

Barbara Webster, the area’s eTeam leader for PCI, gave a 10-minute presentation featuring multiple broadband adoption and access success stories from across the state.

“A lot of the reasons I do what I do is to impact economic development so our kids have better opportunities in the region,” Webster told the crowd. “We want the people that we live with, work with and care about to have opportunities within the region.”

Jean Anne Grunloh, executive director of ECIDC, said the annual event brings together community, business and education leaders to learn of broadband advancements in our rural areas, share ideas for promoting broadband adoption and use by our citizens, and continue collaborative efforts to address broadband needs.  

“ Broadband infrastructure improvements have led to continued business and community growth as well as many civic and government organizations expanding services as a result,” she said. “Recent projects that seek to enhance area citizens’ quality of life have been made possible through expanded broadband, projects such as www.EastCentralIllinoisEvents.com and www.CatchYourCareer.com.”

Click here for more photos of the event.

Representatives of the following businesses and initiatives gave updates on their work during the event:

• Consolidated Communications, Inc.
• Association of Illinois Electric Coops (AIEC)
• Illinois Century Network
• Metro Communications Inc.
• Mediacom
• Frontier Communications
• PEG
• Alcatel Lucent
• East Central Illinois Events Web Site
• Helen Matthes Library
• Zoom.us
• Sarah Weiler - Telemedicine In Use
• Google/Illinois Free Web Page at www.gybo.com/illinois
• eGovt Sites and Business Web Page Development at aiec.coop
• Farm Bureau
• Computer Banc