About PFN

PFN History

The PFN network is a next generation 100% fiber optic transport network service the Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Northern Lower Peninsula and northern Wisconsin. PFN’s network backbone is fully redundant and ring protected using new technology DWDM transport systems.

In addition to its backbone transport systems PFN also provides metro connectivity within several of its network cities.

More About PFN

PFN operates in excess of 2600 route miles of fiber in the Upper Peninsula, Northern Lower Peninsula, Northern Wisconsin and extending into Eastern Minnesota
Provides Optical Transmission, Tandem Transport and Switching, Ethernet Transport, TDM Transport, high volume “Core Internet” access, Wireless Backhaul
Member of the Indatel consortium
Privately held LLC in the State of Michigan

PFN Member Companies

Hiawatha Telephone Company

Jamadots is proud to provide superior quality, incredibly reliable residential and business class telecommunications services across the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Jamadots is owned by Hiawatha Communications, Inc. (HCI). The HCI family of companies include:

Hiawatha Telephone Company (HTC - Munising, MI)
Hiawatha Telephone Company (HTC -& Brimley, MI)
Midway Telephone Company (MTC - Watton, MI)
Ontonagon County Telephone Company (OCTC - Ontonagon, MI)

The HCI corporate offices are located in downtown Munising, MI at the gateway to the scenic and popular Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore along the southern shores of Lake Superior.

The jamadots company and staff are dedicated to providing clients with the best in residential and business communications. They offer customers all the services they need for home or office including unlimited local calling, long distance calling, voice mail, caller ID and other popular call features, high-speed internet, digital business systems, wireless home routing, and web hosting.

From coast to coast, the HCI service area spans the Upper Peninsula and includes many communities.

Baraga Telephone Company

Baraga Telephone Company – Up.Net has one of the largest, most robust, and advanced privately owned networks in the Midwest. With an aerial extent nearly 19,000 square miles, the up.net network is larger than Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, and New Jersey combined. Through this network Baraga Telephone Company and up.net are able to provide Internet access to major corporations, universities, secondary schools, medical care facilities, and other Internet Service Providers.

BTC and up.net have designed, installed, and maintained computer networks for US Government military facilities, primary schools, secondary schools, county government buildings, sheriff offices, public libraries, insurance companies, print and design companies, medical care facilities, lawyers, tax consultants, and thousands of residential homes. This experience shows they know what works for networks.

Servers and services they currently run and support include Windows Server, Microsoft SQL, Microsoft IIS, Unix and Linux web servers, mail servers, DNS servers, MySQL Servers, Cisco Routers, Cisco Switches, VMWare Virtualization and many others.

Baraga Telephone Company prides themselves on the fact that they continue to learn and try new technologies as they become available in order to find new ways to help their customers and improve their services. BTC and up.net staff has years of experience in computer repair, virus and spy-ware removal, server installation and maintenance, and networking.

PFN Senior Management

Left to Right:Tim McKee, Todd Proehl, and James F. Bednarek

James F. Bednarek

Controller and Assistant Treasurer

Mr. Bednarek has in excess of 20 years of experience in financial, business management engineering and construction. His prior experience includes positions at Prince Corporation, a supplier of interior components to the automobile industry, performing the roles of Production Team Supervisor, Quality Engineer, and Launch Quality Engineer. He also worked with Premeau Construction Inc., in Marquette, as Business Manager/Controller. In addition, he has built and run his own companies in the construction and landscaping industries. Mr. Bednarek earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan in 1990, with subsequent Master’s course work.

Mr. Bednarek has also been an Alpine Ski Instructor since 2008, and served as the Director of the Snowsports School at Marquette Mountain Ski Resort for the 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 seasons. Mr. Bednarek has also been active in coaching youth sports since 2001.

Tim McKee

911 Program Director

Tim McKee was the 911 Central Dispatch Director and Emergency Management Coordinator for Chippewa County. He held that position since 2000. He has served on a number of advisory boards including the State 911 Dispatcher Training subcommittee, the Upper Peninsula 911 Authority Board, Eastern Upper Peninsula Fire Fighter Training committee and the War Memorial Hospital Ethics Committee. He also served as a police chief for 18 years in Kinross Township in the Eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Todd Proehl

Director of Technical Operations

Todd Proehl is responsible for all of the customer-facing aspects of the PFN network, especially as it pertains to IP engineering and policy, network deployment and service delivery. Mr. Proehl has nearly 20 years of experience in IP and transport network development, systems architecture, planning and network security. His background includes multiple engineering positions at Charter Communications where he was part of the initial transition of their network from stand-alone CATV to TDM and IP transport networking. In addition, Mr. Proehl served as Network and Security Manager for Hagerty Insurance a large, specialty Insurance provider in Northern Michigan. Mr. Proehl received a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Sciences from Northern Michigan University and is Cisco CCNA certified.

PFN Executives

Group picture of PFN Exectutives. Left to right: (Top) J. Thomas Sumbler, James P. Brogan, David S McCartney, M. Koray Inal (Bottom) William C. Tidd, Paul W. Stark Proehl, and James F. Bednarek

Left to Right: (Top) J. Thomas Sumbler, James P. Brogan, David S McCartney, M. Koray Inal (Bottom) William C. Tidd, and Paul W. Stark

David S. McCartney

David McCartney (“Dave”) is General Manager of Peninsula Fiber Network LLC, In his position, Mr. McCartney is responsible for all aspects of PFN’s operations, including financial, regulatory, strategy and public policy.

Mr. McCartney is a CPA and has nearly 40 years of experience in telecommunications policy, regulatory, financial management and corporate structure. His experience spans both regulated and deregulated telecommunications operations and management. His expertise includes all aspects of FCC Part 32 accounting rules and structures as well as the Rural Utility Service and US Government single audit and related documentation requirements. Mr. McCartney was the original architect of PFN, working with Hiawatha Communications Inc and Baraga Telephone Company to form PFN as a joint venture between the two companies. Mr. McCartney has a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Michigan Technical University and a Master’s in Business Administration from Notre Dame, Du Lac University.

James P. Brogan

Mr. Brogan is the President and CEO of Hiawatha Communications Inc. along with being the Vice President and Secretary for PFN. He has attended and participated in multiple corporate, trade association, vendor and consultant organized conferences, forums, roundtables and training sessions related to every aspect of the communications industry. He is on the Board of Directors for the Telecommunications Association of Michigan (TAM), Michigan Exchange Carriers Association (MECA), Munising Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees and the Munising Memorial Hospital Association. Mr. Brogan holds a BS – Business Administration, Lake Superior State University.

Paul W. Stark

Mr. Stark began his career with Schulumberger Offshore Services working as a Field Engineer in the North Sea in 1974. In 1984 he became an Engineer at Baraga Telephone Company (BTC). Baraga Telephone Company began providing dial up internet services through the telephone exchange in 1995. Mr. Stark oversaw the development of high speed internet (DSL) service at BTC. Along with being the President and General Manager of Baraga Telephone, he served four terms as the President of the Village of Baraga. Mr. Stark holds a Master’s in engineering from Michigan Technical University.

William C. Tidd

Mr. Tidd directs network management and outside plant operations for PFN. Mr. Tidd began his employment with Hiawatha Communications Inc. in 1976 as a line technician. During his tenure he held several positions including Outside Plant Supervisor and Network Manager. Since 2005 he has been the Vice President/CTO at Hiawatha Communications Inc and is a board member of Hiawatha Communications Inc. Mr. Tidd attended Minnesota State Community College.

J. Thomas Sumbler

Thom Sumbler is in charge of the Sales, Business Development and Product Development operations for Peninsula Fiber Network, LLC,. In this position, Mr. Sumbler is responsible for development and expansion of the PFN markets, product development and corporate strategy.

Mr. Sumbler has nearly 40 years of experience in the development of US domestic telecommunications networks and related technology companies with an emphasis on carrier core networking and Metro Ethernet service delivery. Mr. Sumbler has architected two highly successful start-up companies and has also held several executive management positions with major US networks. Throughout his career, he has concentrated his efforts heavily on inter-carrier, network overlay, trade and joint venture arrangements.

M. Koray Inal

Mr. Inal is Vice President of Baraga Telephone Company and serves on the executive management committee for PFN as an Engineering and Corporate Strategy Advisor.

Mr. Inal began his career with Caterpillar, Inc., in 2005, where he was the Senior Engineer and Six Sigma Black Belt Team Lead. In February 2009, Mr. Inal left Caterpillar and began employment with Baraga Telephone Company, where he remains as its Vice President. Mr. Inal holds a PHD in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technical University. In addition, Mr. Inal currently serves at the Chairman of the Board for BHK Child Development Agency (January 2012 – present), in Houghton, Michigan, and is the basketball coach for Special Olympics (2011-present) in Baraga, Michigan.