High school students from across the state explored Iowa’s digital infrastructure, gaining rare access to information about critical infrastructure, data centers, and election security.
ICN hosted its Statewide Youth Broadband Advisory Council (SYBAC) on April 14 for discussions and tours at the Capitol Complex and a local data center. The event served as an in-person session for students who spent the school year hearing from experts on cybersecurity, infrastructure and emerging technology.
The session highlighted three technology areas:
Network Operations
Election Security
Physical Infrastructure
Experts at each location emphasized that technical skills are only one part of a professional career. Throughout the day, all leaders encouraged the students to remain flexible, work hard, and prioritize networking with peers to remain marketable in a shifting job market.
Congratulations to the members of ICN's Statewide Youth Broadband Advisory Council (SYBAC) for completing their Fortinet cybersecurity training!
Throughout the school year, these students earned their 'Introduction to the Threat Landscape' certificate, providing them with vital insights into evolving cyber threats and core security principles. The two-year certificate provides the essential knowledge needed to navigate the modern threat landscape and kickstart a professional journey in cybersecurity.
April is National 911 Education Month, highlighting the vital link between citizens and emergency services. While Iowans rely on the expertise of local dispatchers and first responders, ICN serves as the invisible lifeline for these interactions. As the state’s dedicated fiber-optic backbone, the ICN provides the critical infrastructure that securely carries emergency calls from Iowans' devices to one of Iowa's 111 public safety answering points (dispatch centers).
Public Safety Commitment
ICN is dedicated to public safety connections through our secure, IP-based critical infrastructure, which has transformed emergency systems beyond the traditional voice calls.
Delivering 911 Calls: Every 911 call that’s made in Iowa is transported across the ICN to be delivered to one of the 111 public safety answering points.
Text-to-911 Services: All 99 counties have this capability, which is a vital tool for those with hearing loss or those in silent emergencies where speaking is not an option.
Push-to-Talk & Radio Transport: Beyond 911 calls, the ICN infrastructure provides essential transport for the state’s Land Mobile Radio (LMR) system. This supports Push-to-Talk (PTT) technology, allowing emergency personnel to communicate instantly across county lines and jurisdictions.
Redundant Safety Nets: ICN uses fiber ring architecture and FirstNet (LTE) wireless backups at dispatch centers to ensure connectivity remains active even during fiber cuts or severe weather.
ICN recently completed a complex infrastructure relocation in downtown Des Moines, successfully moving a critical network hub from vacated state buildings to a new facility.
When two state government agencies vacated building locations at 535 SW 7th St. and 400 SW 8th St. in Des Moines, ICN faced a unique challenge: the 7th Street location served as a Network hub that fed high-speed data to other nearby ICN locations, including healthcare and government customers.
To maintain seamless service, ICN coordinated a joint effort between its outside plant and engineering teams. The project involved physically moving the network to a new location on 5th Street in Des Moines.
Key highlights of the move included:
Fiber Redirection: Crews re-spliced underground fiber optic cables to redirect the data flow from the old 7th Street hub to the new 5th Street facility.
Capacity Upgrades: This move upgraded several network circuits from 1Gb to 10Gb, providing 10x the data capacity for connected agencies.
Service Continuity: Critical healthcare customers were successfully transitioned to the new hub with minimal impact.
As of mid-January, ICN has removed all equipment from the previous locations. The new hub is now fully operational, offering a more modern, high-capacity backbone for the area.
Spring cleaning looks a little different when your to-do list includes industrial generators, HVAC systems, and LP fuel levels. At ICN, our dedicated facilities team and network field technicians don't wait for a change in season; they spend every day performing the essential, behind-the-scenes maintenance that keeps Iowa connected.
With 3,400 miles of owned fiber-optic cable and over 600 facility sites across the state, a network of this scale requires more than seasonal attention.
Read how we take a proactive, year-round approach to ensuring our infrastructure remains reliable and resilient for every Iowan we serve.
Our Executive Director, Ryan Mulhall, recently took the stage at the Community Broadband Action Network (CBAN) Spring Summit in Ames. He shared insights on the past, present, and future of the ICN, highlighting our commitment to a connected Iowa.
Social Media Highlights
World Backup Day
It’s the perfect time to ensure you aren’t the punchline of a tech disaster.
The reality? Over 70% of U.S. users have faced significant data loss, yet roughly 20% of computer owners have never backed up.
Thinking "it won't happen to me" is the biggest April Fools' joke of all.
April is National Safe Digging Month!
It's our job to keep Iowa connected, but keeping it safe is a team effort.
From major job sites to backyard DIYs, one call to 811 keeps your budget intact and our infrastructure out of the line of fire.
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes a standard tool in health care, rural hospitals risk falling further behind in the digital divide. Many rural facilities lack the patient volume, technical expertise and resources needed to adapt externally developed AI models, build their own, or maintain them over time.
Iowa lawmakers are considering a deal with Tyler Technologies to use AI and public budget data to find cost savings by comparing the spending of school districts and local governments across the state.
Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSEM) encourages families to visit ready.iowa.gov/be-prepared/know-your-911 for resources, including:
Guidance on when to call 911 and what information to provide.
Tools to help teach children about the role of 911 and first responders.
Instructions on how and when to use text-to-911 services.
ICN's News and Updates Bulletin is your monthly source for everything happening with Iowa's critical infrastructure. Subscribe here to get it delivered directly to your inbox and catch up on key infrastructure projects, new services and customer stories, and telecom and security updates.
