The Iowa Communications Network (ICN) announced a strategic collaboration with the Broadband Optical Research, Education and Sciences Network, known as BOREAS. BOREAS was founded by four Midwest institutions: Iowa State University, the University of Iowa, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, to enable high-speed data sharing for educational and research purposes.
The partnership will introduce added diversity and redundancy to ICN’s statewide fiber-optic backbone, with a targeted project completion year of 2026. The collaboration envisions an improved path to major cloud and content exchange providers, including AWS, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle, by connecting ICN to Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) through a dedicated 100-gigabit link to the cloud gateway in Chicago.
Under the arrangement, BOREAS will receive access to ICN’s extensive Iowa fiber backbone, enabling educational research use. ICN aims to leverage BOREAS’ regional network to reduce core-location costs and possibly gain broader access to IXPs as part of the education and research ecosystem it supports.
“We are looking forward to a long collaborative relationship with BOREAS,” stated Patrick Kazeze, ICN’s Director of Networking and Engineering. “This partnership will allow us to utilize the formidable BOREAS network and could yield cost savings at key sites, as well as potential access to additional IXPs.”
BOREAS is a high-speed regional network designed to support large data transfers and collaborative research among its member institutions. By tying ICN’s statewide fiber backbone to BOREAS, the project seeks to accelerate data-driven discoveries while expanding network resilience across Iowa’s educational and public-sector landscape.
ICN describes itself as a state-owned, high-speed fiber network that supports secure, reliable communications for state and federal agencies, public safety entities, educational institutions, and healthcare facilities. The network’s 100% fiber transport technology is positioned to support future data-intensive activities at scale.
