Illinois' broadband gap squeezes small business

Crain's Chicago Business reports:

Even the cheapest DSL service is out of Steve Zaransky's reach.

The line providing high-speed Internet access from AT&T Inc. stops 600 yards short of his company, Airways Digital Media. Comcast Corp. doesn't serve his neighborhood, an industrial corridor on the city's Far Northwest Side.


Steve Zaransky's Web development firm cannot connect to high-speed Internet services. AT&T says its broadband will reach the company later this year. Photo: John R. Boehm
Broadband remains elusive for some Chicagoans living or working in industrial areas — as Mr. Zaransky learned when he moved his three-employee Web development firm from the West Loop last summer. "I just assumed that anywhere in the city, you'd be able to get broadband," he says.

That's not the case. Illinois ranks 21st nationally for broadband lines per capita, trailing California, Massachusetts and even sparsely populated Nevada and Alaska. In a world of instant information, that's a serious disadvantage for small business owners like Mr. Zaransky, who can't afford the T-1 lines larger companies use to tap into the Internet.

Check out the table at the bottom of the article comparing different states.Anyone interested in technology should read this article.