HBC to extend network to Red Wing

RED WING, Minn. – Hiawatha Broadband Communications, Inc. (HBC), this summer will extend its fiber-optic network from Wabasha to Red Wing. That was the message delivered to a group in Red Wing City Hall this morning by Gary Evans, HBC president and CEO.
The first step in the process, said HBC Vice President for Technology Dan Pecarina, is to extend fiber from the current terminus of the HBC network north of Wabasha through Red Wing. “That is a key step,” said Pecarina, “because it is the foundation for everything that Red Wing residents have been trying to make happen for nearly a decade.”
Extending fiber from Wabasha through Red Wing and into Dakota County involves the cooperation of many entities, said Pecarina, including the City of Red Wing, Red Wing Port Authority, Red Wing Area Chamber of Commerce, Goodhue County and State of Minnesota, to name a few.
The fiber extension was engineered as part of HBC’s application for a first-round American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 broadband grant. The grant request was denied in January. But business opportunities in Red Wing and Lake City prompted the HBC Board to approve the extension of the network.
It is expected, Pecarina said, that construction will begin in August, with completion scheduled for November, assuming normal weather patterns. When complete, the network will serve customers along the route with voice and data services.
“It’s not the full FTTH project that we want,” said Evans, “but it is a huge first step in that direction. We know that the Red Wing residents won’t rest until the full project is done, and HBC has the same resolve.”
HBC History
Created in 1997 as a successor to a not-for-profit education initiative called Luminet, Hiawatha Broadband Communications, Inc., provides high-speed and dial-up Internet connections, telephone, and cable television services to the greater Winona, St. Charles, Wabasha, Rollingstone, Lewiston and Stockton areas in Minnesota. Currently work is being completed on a fiber to the home network in Minneiska, with the construction of a Utica network to follow.
More than 40 percent of the stock in HBC is owned by Winona area not-for-profit institutions. The stock was purchased for the community’s schools by anonymous benefactors as the new company was organized to build upon the history of Luminet. Begun in 1992, Luminet utilized a leased fiber-optic network to connect the community’s educational institutions for the purpose of extending the reach of teaching and learning.
HBCI is a privately held for-profit corporation. It employs 68 people.
(For additional information contact Gary Evans (507-458-5211), Dan Pecarina (507-206-7745) of HBC, or Myron White (651-385-3697) of the Red Wing Port Authority)