On January 14, 2026, Iowa Communications Network (ICN) successfully completed an infrastructure move involving two former state agency building locations at 535 SW 7th St. and 400 SW 8th St. in Des Moines. When state government agencies vacated these facilities, 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 ten times 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.
This project highlights ICN's commitment to flexibility, ensuring that even as physical office spaces change, the critical infrastructure supporting Iowa remains faster and more reliable than ever.