Tennessee Municipal Utility Offers 150 Mbps Service
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, June 7, 2010 · 
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Chattanooga, Tennessee is well on its way to building a FTTH network which will service its entire territory.
EPB Fiber Optics, a subsidiary of Chattanooga’s electric utility, operates the largest municipal 100% fiber optic network in the country. Back in 2007, the city council voted 8-0 to approve the $200 million project, and despite two failed legal attempts by the cable industry to derail the project, it has moved forward.
EPB announced that it is now ahead of schedule thanks at least in part to federal stimulus funds. Fiber optic 100 Mbps services will be available to its entire customer service area by the end of 2010.
EPB services 170,000 homes and business spread over 600 square miles in Chattanooga, Hamilton County and parts of five other counties in southeast Tennessee and three in North Georgia. Approximately 9,600 customers have ordered fiber optics services to date. EPB’s symmetrical 100 Mbps service is priced at $350 a month.
EPB also announced its plans to introduce the nation’s first 150 Mbps residential Internet service, Fi-Speed Internet 150. It will offer 150 Mbps both uploading and downloading, and will be available to residential customers by the end of this month.
“From the start, people in the community have been telling us that they want Fi-Speed Internet, Fi TV and Fi Phone from EPB Fiber Optics, so we’ve done everything we can to speed up the deployment,” said Katie Espeseth, vice president of EPB Fiber Optics.
Of note, EPB’s parent municipal electric utility is leveraging the FTTH network for its smart grid operations.
To learn more about EPB’s Smart Grid and EPB Fiber Optics services, visit www.epb.net or www.epbFi.com.
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