December Digital Edition >> 30 Years of the ICN

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Your Digital Edition of 30 Years of the ICN has Arrived!

icn.iowa.gov

December 2023

View Our Celebrating 30 Years Webpage

Recap of our Campaign

We have had a great time celebrating our 30 year anniversary in 2023. Below are highlights we have brought to you throughout the year explaining the mission and impact the Network has had for Iowans.

January

We launched our campaign. To mark the milestone, a Celebrating 30 Years webpage was created that features how the Network connects with Iowans, historic information, timelines, article snapshots, and upcoming future projects.

🎉 View our launch email from January.

Proclamation

Governor Kim Reynolds signed a proclamation declaring January 13, 2023, a celebration of
30 Years of Service for the Iowa Communications Network. The proclamation highlights the valuable and strong broadband services benefiting Iowans in all 99 counties.

📜 Take a moment to read the Proclamation.

February

We published our Impact Paper on Providing Services to Iowans.

Technology changes quickly, and what has been consistent, reliable, and maybe a little discreet, is the fiber optics that launched Iowa in the spotlight. The ICN began Iowa’s conversations about the Internet and its accessibility for Iowans.

👉 Learn about our impact in the February email.

March

One of our previous executive directors explains that 30 years later the ICN remains on target and on mission. John Gillispie describes, "Technology has fundamentally changed from the era when the ICN was envisioned, but the investment in fiber optic cable has proven as important in today’s world as roads and bridges were in the past."

🎯 View our March email.

April

A very classy ICN logo continues to grace the ICN office. Steve Palm, a retired ICN engineer, created this wonderful piece of art. It is constructed from oak and walnut wood.

➡️ Review our April email to learn more about this stunning piece of art.

May

Dewey Readmore Books was granted honorary membership in the Iowa Communications Network after attending multiple meetings at the ICN Room of the Spencer Public Library.

🐱 View our May email to read how the group gave him the nickname 'Fiber Cat'.

June

Even back in 1995, we were writing about 'critters'. Many people are unaware that gophers, raccoons, and other critters can cause fiber cuts and Network issues. These issues can be difficult to locate since the critters won't entirely chew through the cable.

Read our June email to learn more.

July

ICN partnered with Meskwaki Nation, who was one of our sub-grantees for the federal broadband award in 2010.

The partnership was also highlighted in the 2017 BroadbandUSA The Power of Broadband Partnership: A Toolkit for Local and Tribal Government.

Read our July email for more details.

August

In 2000, fairgoers stopping by the ICN booth in the Technology Pavilion had a hands-on opportunity to compare the speed of an ICN Internet connection to that of a dial-up modem.

This showed how schools and other users benefited from the increased speed.

🎡 Go back to the fair in our August email.

September

Back in 2011, the Waverly-Shell Rock Middle School was launching its 1:1 program during the 2011-2012 school year. Our fiber-optic network provided the critical link to ensure that their iPad project was successful by supplying the Internet and bandwidth needed for the multiple applications.

💻 View our September email for details.

October

In 2022, ICN's CIO, Ryan Mulhall sat down with Dan Winters from WHO 13 to talk about cybersecurity and highlighted the ICN.

As an Internet service provider, ICN has visibility on millions of network events that would be considered malicious traffic on our customers’ Networks and our State Network.

🔒 View our cybersecurity focus in our October email.

November

In 2007, ICN and Freedom Calls connected Iowa families with active-duty personnel serving in Iraq. The reunions were provided at no cost to the family or soldier.

View our November email explaining how we connected Iowa soldiers with their families at home.

Final Highlights

Partnering with the Iowa HSEMD, we used the FirstNet infrastructure to provide a separate, redundant backup network for 911 traffic.

Check out the article from 2021:

Iowa Taps Into FirstNet for 911 Backup

In 2008, we helped the Iowa Hospital Association connect using fiber-optic lines from current ICN locations to the member hospitals. This became the IRHTP network that is still used today!

Discover how it all began: Bridging the Last Mile of Electronic Health Care