As Indiana Fiber Network aims to position itself for future growth and expand its reach outside of the Hoosier state, the commercial fiber broadband provider has rebranded itself and is now Intelligent Fiber Network.
In a blog post, CEO Jim Turner outlined three reasons why 16-year-old IFN, which is owned by 20 local telcos, decided on the rebrand.
“First we want to showcase the increasingly complex technical design of the high-speed fiber networks we deploy by calling them what they are: Intelligent!” Turner writes.
He goes on to say that the rebrand also removes geographical limitations that may artificially exist by virtue of having a specific state be part of the company name.
“We want to be the premier choice for businesses and organizations looking for fiber connectivity not just in Indiana, but wherever our growth may take us,” Turner writes.
Lastly, the company wanted a named that enabled it to preserve the IFN acronym in order to maintain brand recognition by customers, partners and owners.
“IFN has achieved strong, double-digit revenue growth in recent years, and we have expanded our staff by nearly 30 percent in just the past 15 months,” explains Turner in a statement. “We believe there are significant growth opportunities in Indiana, and we’re also opening the door to opportunities outside of the state, as well as with additional investors and partners. Launching this modern brand signals our intention to the market and positions IFN to meet these expansion goals.”
Earlier this year IFN announced a multi-year, multi-million dollar network upgrade across Indiana to increase capacity, improve stability, and add operational and network efficiency. The hardware upgrades will happen in phases over the next two years, with all four phases of the 2018 portion now complete. Additional phases are slated to start during the first quarter of 2019.
IFN, which provides internet backbone, data transport and colocation services to telecom providers and business customers like hospitals, schools and government facilities, plans to invest up to $100 million over the next five years just in Indiana.
“From 5G to IoT, high-speed connectivity is changing the way industries across the world operate,” says Turner. “Every sector of the economy – agriculture, manufacturing, health care, government services, education and telecommunications – is adapting this technology to serve their customers more effectively and efficiently. To enable these industries’ increasing demands for bandwidth, IFN must continue to evolve as well and encourage new and old partners alike to embrace today’s disruptive technologies.”
IFN’s network includes more than 4,500 route miles of fiber-optic cable across 456 Indiana cities and towns.