Commerce

NTIA Awards $23 Million to Illinois for Digital Equity

Funds will help jump start key digital equity initiatives.

Ari Bertenthal

Nov 26, 2024 — 1 min read

Photo of a sign in Illinois, from Broadband Communities

Nov. 26, 2024 – Commerce Department officials announced that the state of Illinois will receive more than $23 million in federal funding to implement its digital equity plans.

The state will use federal funds from the $1.44 billion State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program to implement its digital equity plans. The funding, announced Monday, is administered by the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

Funding for the grant program came from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act championed by the Biden administration.

Illinois’ digital equity plan is designed to establish a dashboard to measure digital equity progress and launch partnerships with institutions to serve as regional digital equity champions.

The state’s funding was part of the first funding round of NTIA’s digital equity grant program, which allocated more than $800 million to states, territories and tribal entities.

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