Alton, Illinois officials say they’ve struck an expanded agreement with AltonWorks, a company built specifically to revitalize the city and deal with residents’ longstanding frustration at the lack of affordable, next-generation broadband access.
Altonworks was created in 2018 by local attorney John Simmons as a “social impact development company,” tasked with revitalizing the city of 25,000. The provider was created on the back of a $20 million grant authorized by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO).
“This project’s impact extends way beyond Alton,” DCEO Assistant Director Cameron Joost recently said at the project’s unveiling.
“It’s a model for communities across Illinois approaching broadband infrastructure with vision, partnership, and commitment to equity.”
Altonworks is partnering with i3 Broadband, which broke ground on a new $25 million FiberNet project. FiberNet is projected to reach 94 percent of the city's residents with fiber broadband speeds up to 10 gigabits per second (Gbps). The $25 million fiber build is slated to be completed sometime in 2027.
The deployment comes to a community where broadband access is primarily dominated by entrenched incumbent telecom giants like Charter Communications and AT&T. A lack of real competition has resulted in spotty access, slow speeds, high prices, and substandard customer service.
FiberNet says it’s being driven by four core principles: “reach as many people as possible, prioritize the unserved and underserved, maximize every dollar within its budget and reserve 12 fiber strands throughout the city for future community needs.”
Prices for the fiber service are expected to start at $30 per month at speeds of at least 300 megabits per second (Mbps) both upstream and downstream. 79 percent of the installation will be underground. Illinois-based i3 Broadband, working with JF Electric, is deploying the fiber, i3 Broadband will operate as the ISP, and Altonworks will own the network.
"Today marks Alton's entrance into the next century," Simmons said of the effort.
"We're not just installing cables. We're dismantling digital barriers, unlocking innovation, and ensuring that every child, every entrepreneur, and every resident has access to the same world-class opportunities as anyone, anywhere. This network will serve Alton for the next 100 years, evolving with technology we can't even imagine today."
Inline image of Alton, Illinois Historic District courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
