BUHLER - In 1999, five high schoolers with $250 a piece formed Ideatek. 25 years later, the company has become the largest fiber internet service provider in Kansas.
2024 marks IdeaTek's 25th anniversary. Over the quarter of a century, the company has shifted its original focus from computer repair to fiber internet services and construction.
“It's hard to believe it's been 25 years since a high school project sparked the idea that became IdeaTek,” said Daniel Friesen, IdeaTek’s co-founder and chief innovation officer. “Back then, we were just a group of high-schoolers fixing computers, but, as we evolved, we quickly learned that our community’s need was bigger than just computer repair.”
The friends went their separate ways during college, but Friesen stayed on, building the company while earning degrees in management information systems and business administration.
“I ran the company through college and used it to pay for my college,” Friesen said. “I graduated from HCC and then WSU and when I graduated, I got married to my wife who’s from Buhler. When I moved to Buhler, I really recognized a lack of good internet service, and it was surprising to move 10 miles away and see the difference in internet availability.”
In 2005, Friesen led IdeaTek into telecommunications by purchasing and improving failing dial-up and DSL companies. This success funded the first fiber-to-home service in Buhler in 2007, followed by Inman, Haven, Yoder, Mount Hope and Bentley.
The company has been through many different growth cycles – from dialup and DSL to rural cell towers and leading earlier initiatives in small-cell mobile networks.
The company saw exponential growth in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s emphasis on reliable home internet access. IdeaTek was awarded $13.7 million in federal funding, winning over one-third of all available funding to bring high-speed internet to 17 underserved Kansas counties, further supplemented by private investment.
The company employs over 160 Kansans, has deployed over 5,500 miles of fiber and has built 150 fixed wireless towers — serving customers in over 100 Kansas communities.
“We execute our vision of internet freedom by serving underserved customers the same today as we have for more than two decades,” Chief Executive Officer Jerrod Reimer said in a press release. “Our entire culture is oriented around guiding principles like passion, tenacity, and inventiveness that continue to drive us forward and provide ultra-fast internet to more communities in Kansas.”
The company plans to expand or is expanding in Augusta, Mulvane, Derby, Maize, Hutchinson, Newton, Garden City, Dodge City, Kinsley and Eureka. Last year, IdeaTek secured state grant funding to construct 400 miles of fiber connecting farms, feedlots, and rural residents along the U.S. 83 Highway corridor from Liberal to Dodge City.
As the company continued to grow, Friesen said even in larger communities, internet users often had one choice when it came to their provider.
“Over time, we realized that even communities like Hutchinson are really underserved, from a competitive perspective and with quality and reliability,” Friesen said. “The service in Hutchinson, people have been kind of a slave to their current provider and that’s kind of our whole slogan: internet freedom.”
Beyond building fiber to communities, IdeaTek is partnering with state broadband officials to bridge the digital divide by building a "middle-mile" fiber network. This critical infrastructure will connect major cities and institutions across the state, making it easier and more cost-effective for any service provider to extend high-speed internet to unserved communities.
“Fiber internet is the gold standard for internet connectivity, and we want to bring this technology to as many communities as possible,” Friesen said. “With fiber, we are providing a new foundation for innovation, creativity and progress in the age of the digital economy.”