WEST DES MOINES — Iowa Communications Alliance (ICA), the statewide association serving 120 locally owned and community-based broadband providers across Iowa, has released the latest results of its member survey highlighting the impacts local rural providers are making in Iowa’s broadband landscape.
Key highlights of the survey include:
• ICA members are heavily investing in fiber for rural Iowans. Results show members have invested $736 million in broadband since 2019. Overall, ICA members have deployed 75,000 miles of fiber in rural Iowa.
• Many of Iowa’s rural communities have the best connectivity in the state. Small, community-based providers are serving 40% of Iowa’s communities with fiber to every home, farm, and business both inside and outside of city limits.
• Neary 2,000 of Iowa’s anchor institutions are served by ICA members. This includes schools, colleges, healthcare facilities, public safety buildings, and libraries.
• ICA members step up to support local projects, activities, and causes. Collectively ICA members have given $50.2 million to support community and economic development projects in rural Iowa.
“The big takeaway here is that at a time when there’s so much focus on how to reach thousands of rural Iowans still awaiting quality broadband access, ICA members are leading the charge in delivering future-proof fiber broadband service to Iowa’s rural communities,” said ICA’s VP of Business Development Brittany Morales. “Our members will continue to empower rural areas of our state with future-proof service and serve as leaders in their local communities.
To learn more about the significant impacts ICA members are making in rural Iowa visit http://www.IaCommunicationsAll.org.
The Iowa Communications Alliance is the nation’s largest state-based association of community-based broadband providers. Its 250+ members provide and enable high-quality, state-of-the-art communications services to Iowans, leading the state to be among the nation’s leaders in fiber-optic deployment.
ICA firmly believes that broadband communications is the tool and industry capable of growing and transforming Iowa and our association is the advocate, catalyst, educator, and resource for Iowa’s community-based communications providers. We empower education, agriculture, healthcare, and other industries to thrive and succeed.