Chattanooga getting 10Gbps home Internet

The city’s municipal power company, EPB, said that the fiber network it installed for residents five years ago is now able to offer the ultra-fast internet service for those willing to pay the $299 monthly fee. Unlike point-to-point commercial installations, which have been possible for a few time, EPB’s 10 Gig service is now available for access by every home and business in a 600 square mile area through Alcatel-Lucent’s TWDM-PON broadband technology. The state of Tennessee prohibits municipal governments from providing Internet service on their own. The service now has reached up to 10 Gbit/s. Using fiber-optic technology is much cheaper, since the price of internet went down nearly $300 per month when they started using the new technology.

A study by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga found that the network has generated more than 2,800 new jobs.

“Chattanooga is a city ready to compete in the 21st Century innovation economy”, said Mayor Andy Berke, in the statement.

On its website, EPB says: “EPB Fiber Optics brought gigabit speeds (1,000 Mbps) to “Gig City” in 2010 with our community-wide fiber optic network”.

Only 100 people signed up for the 1 gigabit service when it originally cost $350 per month.

While ISPs were still in the process of rolling out 1Gbps services, Comcast thought it’d be a good guy for once and introduce 2Gbps service.

“The 10 Gig offering will continue to grow wages, diversify our local economy and propel Chattanooga as a center for technology and invention”, he said. Chattanooga’s experience in creating its own fiber optic network shows other cities, towns and counties that they can also build the infrastructure needed for a gigabit network. The only difference is that Chattanooga has a population of 170,000, while the other two cities only have a smaller scope to cater to.

The blazing speeds of Chattanooga internet make browsing faster and more convenient, but even more significant, it is a boon to the region in terms of STEM research.

Officials at EPB have announced that it’s now offering the world’s first 10-gigabit Internet service that will be made available across what it calls a “large, community-wide territory”.