CHICAGO, IL -- Right now a plan is being hatched to make Chicago home to the most extensive city-wide fiber optic infrastructure in the world, bringing the potential for inexpensive, high-speed broadband access to virtually every address within city limits.

CivicNet is an innovative, public/private initiative to design, develop and implement a high-performance digital infrastructure throughout the city. The same spirit that made Chicago a rail and transportation hub more than 100 years ago is alive and well in a broad cross section of governmental bodies, including City Hall, the Chicago Housing Authority, Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Park District, City Colleges and the Chicago Public Library.

It's one piece of a comprehensive vision of Mayor Richard M. Daley to use technology for objectives like:
*	Creating large-scale municipal networks to which businesses and residents can be connected.
*	Putting institutional transactions on line, such as business permits, health care, and educational initiatives.
*	Promoting economic development, job growth, and an improved quality of life
*	Bridging the digital divide by providing access to high-speed networks to all socio-economic classes so that no one misses out on the technology revolution.
*	Bringing groups of people together in on-line network communities.
*	Advertising employment opportunities; interviewing applicants, and conducting initial job training right in potential employees' homes.
*	Providing 24/7 literacy training, skills enhancement, and adult education.
*	Posting real-time schedules for transit authority buses and trains from kiosks or from riders' homes.

Currently, the city is spending over $25 million annually on leased line costs for voice and data communications. Doug Power, CivicNet's project director in the Department of General Services, explains that by combining the voice and data needs of all of city government, CivicNet is able to aggregate an attractive chunk of business for current and potential telecommunications providers.

"The city is not interested in getting into the telecommunications business," says Tim Mitchell, commissioner of General Services. "Instead, by rolling up the voice and data needs for all governmental entities into one contract, we will demonstrate to communications providers that we mean business when we say we want fiber going by the front door of every address in the City of Chicago."

In addition to aggregating voice and data needs for up to a million users, including students and government, at 1,600 locations around the city, CivicNet also will provide telecommunications companies with easier access to rights-of-way along city streets, power lines, sewer lines and transit lines. For example, the Chicago Department of Transportation will assist in the laying of fiber optic conduit whenever repairs or improvements are made to the city's network of streets and linked traffic signals, according to Katherine Gehl and John Kosiba, executive sponsors in the Mayor's Office. The Department of Sewers maintains an extensive but infrequently used network of 4 feet diameter storm sewers, perfect for stringing the miles of fiber needed to make CivicNet a reality. The access to resources and city cooperation will save millions of dollars in installation costs.

Paul O'Connor, Executive Director of the Chicago Partnership for Economic Development, says CivicNet will be a powerful inducement for the launch of new technology companies increasingly dependent on high-speed telecommunications.

"CivicNet will demonstrate in an incredibly powerful way that Chicago is second to none when it comes to providing existing and start-up businesses with easy access to high speed broadband telecommunications," O'Connor says. "Broadband is the backbone for technology development. CivicNet will be a one-of-kind infrastructure that will further enhance Chicago's position as a global hub for technology businesses."

Illinois already is the major nexus for high performance networks, Connor says, with more data moving through the area's Internet infrastructure than anywhere else on earth (7 terabytes/day = a rate of 60,000 full pages of text per second).

Technology businesses in the city will be able to use CivicNet to link to other metropolitan, state, national and global networks, including the Metropolitan Research and Education Network (MREN), a seven-state regional network, and the Science and Technology Research Transit Access Point (STAR TAP), the world's only interconnection point for international advanced networks.

Later this summer, Power says, a Request For Information (RFI) will be issued to seek input from technology providers. The RFI also will solicit further involvement from potential private sector partners -- hospitals, utilities, community groups and businesses -- interested in joining CivicNet. Following the RFI, a Request for Proposal will be issued as early as the end of this year to private companies qualified to build the fiber optic infrastructure. Power says if all goes according to plan, construction would begin as early as next summer, and pilot projects are scheduled for next spring.

About The Chicago Partnership
The Chicago Partnership for Economic Development is a public/private economic development corporation created and chaired by Mayor Richard M. Daley. The Chicago Partnership's mission is to expand Chicago's economy through the growth of the city's private sector, building the best city in the world in which to live, work, and play. The Chicago Partnership leads in aggressively marketing Chicago's competitive advantages; assists in the retention and attraction of business to Chicago; maintains a comprehensive database on Chicago; and collaborates with the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors.

About the Mayor's Council of Technology Advisors
The Mayor's Council of Technology Advisors is a public-private partnership whose members are drawn from the private sector, from government, and from the not-for-profit community. The task force was formed in early 1999 as part of Mayor Richard M. Daley's commitment to support the development of high-tech activity in the Chicago area in the 21st century. The Council's objective is to help shape the Chicago area's leadership role as one of the world's recognized centers of high-technology activity and growth. The Council recommends strategy and policy, and its members also facilitate the implementation of specific programs. Its members include: technology industry leaders, leaders in education, members of world-class science institutions, financiers, and entrepreneurs and job creators

Contact:
Paul O'Connor, Executive Director
The Chicago Partnership
ph: +1.312.553.0500

Patty Morin, Marketing Director
The Chicago Partnership
ph: +1.312.553.4616