DCN reports…

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.