Providing Internet Access Through Affordable Broadband Services

The Chicago Area Broadband Initiative (CABI) is an affordable broadband initiative focused on bridging the digital divide in underserved urban neighborhoods. CABI is not just about providing internet access – it's about utilizing the access to the internet to expand and grow opportunities within our communities.

Vision: The eradication of the Digital Divide in economically challenged neighborhoods through the creation of a community-based broadband network providing the essential digital services designed to transform these neighborhoods into vibrant digital social economies.

Mission: Deploy a hybrid fiber/wireless network providing residents with low-cost broadband and services that enables them to take full advantage of the digital economy.

Broadband Delivers Opportunities and Strengthens Communities

Getting Beyond the Digital Divide

In 1998, Larry Irving published a seminal report where he coined the term "the Digital Divide." The Digital Divide is the socio-technological state-of-affairs were based upon race, class, the geographic location; we have those who are digital have nots as opposed to those who enjoy full digital inclusion and, in essence, are the digital haves. Numerous studies have been conducted as to the cause of the digital divide, how best to solve it and whether it is getting any better.

In 2020, the adverse effect of the Digital Divide on economically challenged communities had become the subject of national attention. As we have all had to quickly move to digital life: schooling, work, and entertainment over the internet, we have been forced to acknowledge the fact that Internet access is unevenly distributed, demarcating historical Faultline's. The focus of CABI is on economically challenged communities in the City of Chicago.

The Chicago-Area Broadband Initiative (CABI) is an innovative approach to create Gigabit Opportunity Zones within economically neglected communities located throughout the City of Chicago. CABI is a digital socio-economic transformation project whose goal is to provide residents of Chicago's economically challenged areas with Gigabit Opportunities that enable them to become participants in, rather than spectators of, the digital economy.

CABI represents a multi-faceted solution to the need to platform historically economically neglected communities to the promise and benefits of the digital economy.

CABI will