How Connected is Romeoville? Survey Shows How Towns Stack Up with it Comes to Internet Access

Homeowners living in Romeoville are less likely to have home Internet access than many neighboring communities, but are more connected than residents in towns including Lockport and Joliet.

A Crains Chicago Business Market Facts study of the likelihood of homes having Internet access shows that the 60446 ZIP code scored a 115 — higher than the national average of 100.

But Romeoville was less plugged in than two of Bolingbrook's ZIP codes, which had the highest score in Will County at 135, tying with Naperville's 60564 ZIP code and Plainfield's 60585 area. 

But the village fared better than neighboring Joliet, where the four ZIP codes (60432, 60433, 60435 and 60436) scored a 71, 79, 98 and 91, respectively. Lockport scored a 107.

Why do a community's online connections matter? According to a study, surfing Facebook or watching YouTube videos may not be the only benefits to being online. A report in National Journal cites data showing that an expansion of broadband Internet could improve the health of rural Americans through telemedicine, electronic prescriptions and electronic medical records.

According to the report, other benefits include making administrative work more efficient, providing guidance to paramedics and helping seniors via in-home monitoring.

Here's how nearby Patch communities fared on the Internet study (listed in order of highest score):