Joint initiative expands long‑haul fiber infrastructure to meet growing data demands
DCN, Range, and WIN Technology, three regional backbone fiber providers, today announced a joint investment to expand high‑capacity fiber infrastructure across the America’s heartland. The initiative, known as the Heartland Fiber Project, will create a new long‑haul fiber route designed to increase network capacity, resiliency, and flexibility to support the rapidly growing connectivity requirements across the industry and meet demand from AI hyperscale data center development in the region.
The Heartland Fiber Project will span seven states – Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois – establishing a route containing high fiber count and future path conduit to support future growth between Denver and Chicago. The $700 million investment represents a 2,000-mile expansion of regional network infrastructure that is designed to deliver the scale, resiliency, and performance demanded by next‑generation AI workloads and hyperscale computing environments.
Artificial intelligence has dramatically increased the amount of data that must move quickly and reliably between data centers. Hyperscale operators are increasingly turning to America’s heartland due to available land, access to power, and favorable climate conditions that help improve energy efficiency. These developments are driving the need for purpose‑built fiber infrastructure capable of supporting massive, sustained bandwidth requirements.
The expanded network created through the Heartland Fiber Project is designed to help meet these evolving requirements while allowing DCN, Range, and WIN to continue delivering high‑quality service to customers across healthcare, education, government, finance, manufacturing, and wholesale and wireless markets.
By increasing available capacity and strengthening long‑haul connectivity, the project is expected to improve overall network performance, enabling faster data movement, reduced latency, and greater efficiency for applications and services that rely on reliable, high‑speed connectivity.
“The Heartland Fiber Project is a gamechanger for North Dakota and the entire region,” said Seth Arndorfer, CEO of DCN. “It will ensure that we can meet the needs of businesses, including hyperscalers, looking to invest in our state as well as continuing to serve current customers with resilient, high-capacity infrastructure.”
“This collaboration allows us to deliver scale and resiliency more efficiently than any one provider could alone,” said Rob Johnstone, CEO at Range. “At the same time, our anchor institutions and customers in Montana and Wyoming benefit with expanded high capacity and reliable connectivity. By combining our strengths, we’re creating meaningful infrastructure that addresses both current demand and future growth.”
“We’re already supporting the growing hyperscale activity in Wisconsin,” said Scott Hoffmann, CEO for WIN Technology. “The Heartland Fiber Project strengthens our ability to provide diverse connectivity to Chicago and west, while continuing to deliver reliable service that supports businesses, communities, and emerging technologies for years to come.”
Construction on the Heartland Fiber Project is slated to begin this summer. Deployment will take place over the next one to two years, with activation coordinated across the three companies.
About DCN: DCN, created in 1996, is owned by 13 North Dakota-based independent broadband services providers representing 85 percent of all telephone exchanges in North Dakota and more than 90 percent of the state’s total surface area. They serve nearly 400 communities and have more than 70,000 miles of fiber optic cable in service. DCN’s corporate headquarters is located in Fargo, N.D., and its Network Operations Center (NOC) is located in Bismarck, N.D. For more information about DCN, visit www.dakotacarrier.com.
About Range: Range, a leader in technologically advanced communications solutions for residential, business, and wholesale customers, serves over 14,500 broadband subscribers in Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota. With office locations in Forsyth, MT, Sheridan, WY, Worland, WY, and Dubois, WY, Range operates over 6,500 miles of fiber-optic network and employs more than 160 experts with expertise in engineering, construction, project management, operations, and network maintenance. For more information about Range, please visit www.range.net.
About WIN Technology: WIN Technology is a leading digital infrastructure provider operating in the upper Midwest. Over its 22,000-mile fiber network and strategically diverse data centers, WIN Technology provides critical IT Services and connectivity solutions to customers in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, and Michigan. WIN Technology is proudly recognized as a certified Great Place To Work©. To learn more about WIN Technology, visit www.wintechnology.com.