CHICAGO – When it comes to getting every home equipped with broadband, Chicago is not competing with Los Angeles or New York, it is competing with the rest of the world, Hardik Bhatt, CIO and Commissioner of the Department of Innovation and Technology for the City of Chicago, said today.

Speaking at the Telephony LIVE Telecom Summit in Chicago, Bhatt called for telecom service providers to join forces with the government to make Chicago and other major United State’s cities competitive in the global economy. It will take a relationship involving both the public and private sector to bridge the digital divide and make progress on the greatest infrastructure issues of the times, he said.

“We cannot expect a $700 billion bailout for infrastructure,” he added. “That is not something seen as a huge crisis today like the financial industry. The first step is for all sectors to understand how important this is. The second is, if it is that important, why don’t we work together to find areas of funding and fund it and build it?”

A recent survey suggests that 25% of Chicago households have no Internet access. That number jumps to 50% when low income households are considered in isolation. This number is believed to be comparable to other large U.S. cities, but even more significant when put in the perspective of the rest of the world. Countries like Japan have broadband speeds of 63.6 megabits per second, compared to the U.S. average of 4.9 mbps. Further, the cost runs about $12.60 per megabit in the U.S. compared to $3.69 in Japan. Broadband in the U.S. may seem like a commodity, but it is not, Bhatt said. “The competition needs to be much better to bring the broadband cost down and speeds up.”

Despite the broadband discrepancy in the states, Bhatt pointed out a number of positive advancements the telecom service providers’ relationship with the city of Chicago has brought about. The city has started aggressively using fixed and, primarily, mobile communications to increase the efficiency of Chicago’s field workers. Through implementing the 311 hotline, originating in Chicago in 1999, residents can now use cellular-based service requests of government services or report problems with the fee waived by telecom providers. With 4,500 mobile assets, tracking them through GPS-enabled devices has increased safety and accountability amongst Chicago’s mobile work force – an estimated savings of $1,500 per day due to more efficient deployment and reduced crew delays. Bhatt said the city has been able to apply the innovations telcos come up to the government to increase responsibility on a city-wide basis.