Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration is moving to the second phase of its effort to lure providers of super-fast, 1-gig Internet to Chicago, and it's offering potentially a very big carrot to get them: the use of everything from the roof of City Hall to light poles and sewer tunnels.

In an action that's been expected for a while but is still significant, the city tomorrow is posting a solicitation for interested parties to list their bona fides, known as a request for qualifications. Once interested parties are cut down to a short list, the city will issue a request for bids.

The RFQ will be on the city's website at CityofChicago.org/bids.

The city began the process more than a year ago by asking interested parties to give their ideas about how to design a bid, and a healthy two dozen groups reportedly responded. But its goal remains the same: to attract super-fast Internet to certain neighborhoods in an effort to give Chicago a leg up in an increasingly competitive world.

The city says it wants bidders, at least initially, in seven neighborhoods: the Loop, West Loop and River North in the central area, plus the University of Chicago's Hyde Park campus, Ravenswood on the North Side, the Pullman Industrial Corridor on the Far South Side and the Illinois Institute of Technology/Bronzeville area on the mid-South Side.

To get companies to spend what could be substantial investment capital in those areas, the city is offering the use of potentially lots of city assets. Included: city-owned fiber cable, rooftops of city buildings, sewers, freight tunnels and light poles. In addition, the RFQ says the city is prepared to coordinate excavation of city streets for sewer work with broadband providers and notes that it could itself be a customer for such service.

Super-fast Internet now is available in some portions of the city but tends to be very expensive. The city says its goal is to cut costs 90 percent, to no more than $500 a month for a good connection. Such service is 10 times faster than the best residential speeds cable providers offer and 50 to 100 times faster than what most consumers have. It appeals mainly to business and academic and research users.

"The wireless and fiber-optic connections of broadband infrastructure represent the railroads and rivers of the 21st century," Mr. Emanuel said in a statement. "Just as Chicago remains the center of the nation's transportation infrastructure, this initiative will keep the city at the center of this century's critical information infrastructure."

City officials were not available for comment today to say when the RFP might go out, or provide background on just how interested the private sector may be in joining in.