ICN has officially joined Omaha IX, the premier Internet Exchange housed at 1623 Farnam’s carrier-neutral facility in Omaha. This strategic collaboration enhances ICN’s ability to deliver high-performance, low-latency connectivity to its authorized users throughout Iowa, including K-12 schools, higher education institutions, public safety agencies, government organizations and healthcare facilities.
By participating in Omaha IX, ICN can now peer directly with content and cloud providers geographically closer to its user base, improving network performance, efficiency and resilience across the state’s public-sector broadband initiatives.
A two-year project for the Anamosa State Penitentiary is now complete. This project involved installing phones in 26 buildings, 6 towers, and 4 phones in an extensive tunnel system. Their Voice system had been in use for decades and needed to be upgraded; also, finding parts and maintaining the system was becoming more difficult and costly.
Check Out These Impressive Cabling Numbers
30,000 Feet of Category 6 cable was installed to support the workstation cabling required for the project. This cable rewiring supported phones, fax lines, and more.
3,450 Feet of 24-strand single-mode fiber optic cable for long-distance data transmission between buildings.
1,300 Feet of 12-strand single-mode fiber optic cable installed vertically and horizontally, to each telecommunications equipment cabinet, to support equipment needs throughout each building.
26 Buildings, 6 Towers & Tunnel System:ICN collaborated with a contractor and several onsite workers to handle labeling, mapping, and the entire project scope of work for these locations.
ICN announces it has upgraded its fiber optic infrastructure in North Central Iowa. The new equipment at ICN aggregation sites in Fort Dodge, Humboldt, Pocahontas, and Emmetsburg offers a dedicated 10Gb connection at each location. Local healthcare sites, 911 public safety answering points, government offices, and community college sites all benefit from the added redundancy.
Each year through the FCC’s E-Rate bidding program, Iowa K-12 schools and libraries keep their buildings connected and secure. ICN has participated in the E-Rate program since 2001 and continues to be a vital service provider.
Our involvement helps Iowa’s K-12 education and library customers stay connected with reliable and critical telecommunications services. As we look ahead to the 2025–2026 school year, all Internet service requests ranging from 1 Gigabit to 5 Gigabits went live by July 1.
Customer Testimonial
🔥 More great customer feedback from Southwestern Community College, explaining how our firewall service is a huge time saver! 👍
K-12 Education Update
Free Resources
CISA has compiled a list of free services and tools provided by private and public sector organizations across the cyber community.
Lookout SMS Phishing Assessment conducts real-time mobile phishing simulations. It will help organizations prepare mock phishing campaigns.
Highlights from Social Media
Summer's Here (officially) 😎
Whether you're cruising Iowa's picturesque roads on vacation or just enjoying the view, our fiber optic network often runs right alongside you.
We're proud to bring essential connectivity to our users across all 99 counties of Iowa!
Bringing Iowa Together! 🌟
The Iowa Hospital Association (IHA) and ICN connect rural hospitals to a reliable broadband network through the ICN framework known as the Iowa Rural Health Telecommunications Program (IRHTP).
Iowa State University is offering a new, online undergraduate certificate in cybersecurity to help strengthen the skills of workers and build the state’s workforce. The program’s first students will begin studies this fall.
The Iowa DOT is pleased to announce the Agency’s latest mobile ID milestone: you can now add your Iowa driver’s license or state ID to Google Wallet. You’ll be able to seamlessly and securely present it at 200+ TSA security checkpoints and at participating businesses.
University of Iowa cardiothoracic surgeon John Keech and a growing raft of UI Health Care surgeons increasingly are performing minimally-invasive, robotic-assisted surgery in real patients.
