Since the COVID-19 pandemic, broadband, or high-speed, Internet has grown increasingly essential as the number of devices in a household, as well as the amount of data those devices upload and download, has risen.
But such speeds require more advanced infrastructure. Fiber-optic cables are made of glass strands that transmit data as pulses of light, which advocates say are many times faster than the more traditional copper cables, which use electrical signals.
i3 Broadband, headquartered in Peoria, is one of a half-dozen companies building in Lake County, company representatives estimate. i3 is owned by Wren House Infrastructure, a London-based private equity group founded by the Kuwait Investment Authority.
While there’s competition, including from companies like Ezee Fiber and Metronet, Mike Elam, i3’s vice president of community affairs and market development, believes i3 has the largest footprint in the county.
According to an i3 representative, the company has rights-of-way agreements with Libertyville, Wauconda, Lake Zurich, Vernon Hills, Warren Township, Grayslake, Antioch, Winthrop Harbor, Lake Villa, Lindenhurst, Cary — which is primarily in McHenry County — and Mundelein. It is also working on right-of-ways in Highland Park and Deerfield.
While there was a federal-level push under the Biden administration for high-speed Internet access to be “fiber forward,” Lake County Board member Jennifer Clark said the Trump administration has shifted focus to include technologies like Starlink. Starlink is owned by Elon Musk, a major financial supporter of Trump during his reelection campaign.
Affordability aspects of the federal push have also been modified or removed, according to Clark and an analysis released by the National Association of Counties.
But despite the de-emphasizing of fiber on the federal level, in Lake County at least, it’s proven popular. Clark said fiber-optic companies note the county’s population density and need for such infrastructure.
However, Clark said these efforts are not in direct partnership with the county, and according to i3 officials, they aren’t taking any federal, state or local government money for installation of their underground fiber-optic cables.
‘MORE VITAL THAN EVER’
Clark, who can recall the days before dial-up Internet, talked about when she began to see the need for high-speed Internet access.
An assistant professor at Carthage College, Clark said that during the pandemic, her students — all having to take classes remotely — were telling her they didn’t have broadband Internet at home.
After the 2022 National Association of Counties meeting, which included discussions about federal efforts to increase high-speed Internet access across the country, the county realized it needed to find out where it stood regarding Internet access, Clark said.
She became chair of the newly created Special Committee on Broadband — today known as the Technology Committee. In 2023, the county launched its Digital Growth Initiative, part of which was determining the state of the county’s high-speed Internet access.
Beyond access and affordability issues, which the initiative has also worked to address, one of the big takeaways was that the majority of the county is served by cable Internet, Clark said.
She and i3 both argued that fiber optic is more scalable and robust for the world’s data-heavy future. High-speed Internet is required for work, video-calling family, telehealth, and using day-to-day devices.
“Having access to true high-speed Internet is really more vital than ever,” Clark said. “All done online and with devices using more and more memory, you need to have more powerful access to the Internet.”
When she first went to NACO in 2022, Clark said Lake County was uncertain where it stood regarding broadband and what the possible consequences could be if it were behind. But today, she describes Lake County as a “leader” in both digital equity and broadband Internet access.
The number of broadband companies building in Lake County is a good thing, Clark said, since it means a competitive market with more options for residents. “Fiber is coming to Lake County,” she said.
'LASERS GOOD'
Elam argued for some of the benefits of fiber optics. As he half-jokingly put it, “copper bad, lasers good.”
Copper cables have capacity issues, he said, with asymmetrical upload and download speeds. The future requires higher capacities for both that fiber optics can offer, he said. Today, even personal homes can have from 1 to even 10 gigabit Internet.
“Think about how many things in your place are currently connected,” Elam said. “You’re streaming on your TV, on your phone, on your tablet, on your laptop. We haven’t even talked about other things connected now.”
It’s the era of the “Internet of things,” as Elam called it, a term for a network of physical objects connected by technology — such as smart thermostats and refrigerators that can give you alerts.
“I’ll get a pop-up that my refrigerator door is open,” Elam said. “I’ll get a note that says my drying cycle is complete.”
Elam even pondered other future advances, including “quantum computing” — a field as complicated as it sounds — that would require massively more data transmission capacity. Such a high-data future requires infrastructure capable of handling it.
Although not directly partnering with fiber companies, Lake County has been “very welcoming” to i3, Elam said, both at the county and local municipality level. Communities running on “yesterday’s technology” want to become “more competitive by bringing fiber in.”
“If you don’t have this capacity, quite frankly, you’re going to be left behind,” Elam said. “Businesses know they have to have this capacity to be able to compete in today’s marketplace.”
©2026 Lake County News-Sun, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
