Broadband Serving the Public Interest
Join us on our mission to transform the Chippewa Valley and beyond into a hub of innovation and opportunity. Get in touch with us to learn more about our services and how we can help you make a difference in the digital landscape. Together, let’s shape a brighter future for our community.
What is CINC?
The Chippewa Valley Internetworking Consortium (CINC) is a regional Community Area Network (CAN) formed in 1999 to allow members to collaborate, connect and save costs. CINC (pronounced “sink”) became an Unincorporated Association in 2011 and enables application sharing between city, county and state government, educational institutions, libraries, nonprofits, healthcare organizations and technology providers.
Connect > Collaborate > Save
The Numbers
230
miles of 96 strand fiber
16
Wi-Max towers
35+
members
24
years of service
Our Members
As a community-driven organization, we value collaboration and partnerships. We actively engage with our 35+ members throughout the region, fostering a network of like-minded individuals and businesses who share our vision for a digitally inclusive Chippewa Valley. Together, we work towards creating a vibrant and prosperous community for present and future generations.
Through our expanding infrastructure, we aim to deliver fast and efficient internet connectivity to enhance education, support local businesses, improve healthcare services, and foster economic growth. We are proud of our 24 years of service to the community and continue to work towards expanding and improving our broadband infrastructure.
Awards & Honors
CINC takes pride in its mission and celebrates achievements. They are a reminder of the contributions made to our community and the pride taken in our work. Click to learn more:
Grant Completion
Led by UW-Extension, CINC partnered to expand infrastructure in several Wisconsin communities with two Broadband Technology Opportunities grants totaling nearly $33 million (Building Community Capacity through Broadband). They were completed on time and under budget (January 2014).
Hosted International Researchers
Mr. Yasuichi Kitamura, a researcher at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Japan, and a member of the Asia-Pacific Advanced Network (APAN); Dr. Hiroshi Mizushima, Chief Senior Researcher at the National Institute of Public Health in Japan. The researchers also visited Internet2 and NIH colleagues and other best practice networks in North America to study innovations and their impact on health care (March 25, 2013).
Internet2 Member Meeting Case Studies
CINC members presented four CINC network case studies at theInternet2 Member Meeting. The presentation, “Strengthening a Health Care Community with Advanced Networks: Care Integration at Two Wisconsin Hospitals,” examined operational advances that save lives and improve efficiency. The presentationand slide deckare online (September 2012).
Chancellor’s Friend and Advocate Award
Honored with the “Chancellor’s Friend and Advocate Award,” presented by Ray Cross, Chancellor, UWExtension and UW Colleges, who commented, “The CINC model improves the way many local services are delivered to citizens, saves local taxpayer dollars and lays the foundation for healthy economic development and job growth” (September 2011).
How We Operate
Project Collaboration
CINC projects begin in a conceptual phase with a timeline and objectives. Shared interests and resources help identify technical solutions. Member needs (such as lowering costs through shared applications and sharing infrastructure) are met by working together to solve mutual problems. CINC members have found that solving problems together provides better solutions and identifies innovative and cost-effective solutions.
A Best Practice Model
CINC is a role model community area network with officers and bylaws that utilizes inter-governmental agreements and memorandums of understanding. Should one member disengage, it does not diminish the operability, connectivity and infrastructure enjoyed by the other members. CINC’s low- or no-ownership capitalized multi-stakeholder model enhances collaboration and creates economies of scale. As a CAN with minimal fees (for fiber locates, support and network maintenance), the outcome service level and advanced network speed and connectivity are far higher than any private provider. Redundant design also allows members, including hospitals and emergency services such as police and fire, to utilize a dependent network for mission-critical applications. The CINC model received inspiration from a book by Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom titled, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action.
Funding, Synergy & Sustainability
CINC is a consortium. Each member is invested and acts together with other members to provide ongoing maintenance for a shared infrastructure that meets each member’s needs. This infrastructure enables member organizations to provide exponentially greater and more dependable service at substantially less cost to their respective stakeholders and customers. This CINC community area network model generates a technical and fiscal synergy to create value greater than the sum of its members. CINC projects are funded by the institutions that receive the greatest project benefit. This capitalizing process may involve a lead member with support from others. Members individually determine their own return on investment in order to justify a project investment. This process involves partnership invitations, negotiations, and allows each CINC member to evaluate their own interest and make a proposal to their own governing board. Projects may be incrementally completed in phases. Collaboration allows one member’s need to become another’s opportunity. Because organizations have different fiscal years, CINC is able to complete projects with exceptional agility.
Organizational Structure & Leadership
As an Unincorporated Association (formed in 2011 under §184 WI Statutes), CINC has no employees or payroll and does not sell any product or service. CINC has an Executive Committee, Officers, Bylaws, a Finance Committee, a Fiscal Agent, committees and an annual meeting. These structures provide the necessary workforce for physical and technical support to oversee infrastructure. Because it is a diverse group of CIOs and IT representatives from various public and private member organizations, CINC members provide the necessary operational staff resources themselves (much like a condo association). For some tasks, vendors are hired. Members each share in the operational responsibilities, costs, and vendor oversight to further the organizational mission. CINC conducted its last strategic planning in July 2013.
CINC Applications
Public and Private Partnerships
Fiber optic cable connects critical anchor institutions in the Chippewa Valley through partnerships with Eau Claire-based Underground Systems, Inc. and private telecommunications provider, Packerland Broadband. This high bandwidth connectivity (meaning the amount of data transferred at a given time) allows creative application sharing between cities, counties, public libraries, schools and medical facilities to benefit people in the communities of Dunn, Eau Claire and Chippewa counties—and save money!
Telemedicine
EMS providers and emergency departments in the Chippewa Valley collaborated to implement new technology that enables EMTs to gather EKG data at the scene and transmit it to an area hospital in real-time. Getting patents quickly to specialized care can shorten hospital stays, decrease mortality, and improve patient outcomes from cardiac and stroke patients. The 12‐lead EKG implementation is the result of collaboration and resource sharing between the emergency departments and IT Staff at St. Josephs and Sacred Heart hospitals (Hospital Sisters Health System) and Mayo Health System, all members of CINC.
Public Safety
If you root for an Eau Claire high school or UW-Eau Claire hockey team, Wi-Fi access to your school network is seamless when you visit Eau Claire’s Hobbs Municipal Ice Arena. This access, however, is secondary to the real need for public safety through video surveillance or immediate access to data and voice communications. Hobbs isn’t the only city facility that benefits from shared applications—Carson Park with sports teams, fans, community members and park visitors reap the same benefits of WI‐Fi access without impeding public safety communications or services.
Education Collaboration
Between Chippewa Valley Technical College (CVTC) and the City of Eau Claire resulted in the implementation of Fire Station # 9 and CVTC’s Emergency Services Education Center (ESEC) creating real-life learning experiences for students in the Law, Public Safety & Security programs. Collaborations and shared applications through broadband include: UW Health–Eau Claire Family Medical Clinic, Marquette University—Dental program, Wisconsin Job Service, Workforce Resource and Referral, Chippewa County EDC, UWEC Material Sciences Department, UW-Stout Discovery Center, SportClips and the Barber/Cosmetology program, and Momentum West, which resides at the NanoRite Center and partners in Economic Development.
Chippewa Valley Internetworking Consortium 
