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Municipal Provider EPB Introduces Chattanooga to 10Gbps Residential Broadband: $299 a Month

Phillip Dampier October 15, 2015 Broadband Speed, Community Networks, Competition, Consumer News, EPB Fiber 6 Comments

nextnetThe first provider in the country to offer community-wide gigabit fiber broadband to residential customers today announced it would far surpass the rest of the marketplace with a new 10 gigabit broadband package dubbed NextNet, available throughout the Chattanooga, Tenn. service area of municipal utility EPB for $299 a month.

“Five years ago, Chattanooga and Hamilton County became the first in the United States to offer up to 1 Gig Internet speeds,” said Harold DePriest, president and CEO of EPB. “Today, we become the first community in the world capable of delivering up to 10 Gigs to all 170,000 households and businesses in our service area.”

Its largest competitor — Comcast, charges $299 for up to 2Gbps service in limited service areas, if the customer can wait 6-8 weeks for installation, can afford up to $1,000 in activation and installation fees, and can commit to a two-year contract with a steep early termination fee. EPB will offer its five-times-faster-than-Comcast service to any customer with no lengthy waiting period, no contract, and free installation.

EPB will leverage Alcatel-Lucent’s TWDM-PON broadband technology to deliver scalable fiber broadband, and is also introducing 5 and 10Gbps plans for small businesses and 3, 5, and 10Gbps plans for larger commercial customers. Customers will receive an ONT unit installed by technicians about two weeks before installation is complete. The box, about the size of a DVD player, is required to support the new high speeds. It is usually mounted on a wall near the computer.

“Chattanooga’s 10 Gig fiber optic network is a world-class platform for innovation,” DePriest said. “In recent years, the need for faster Internet speeds has increased rapidly. Chattanooga is the perfect place for companies to enhance their productivity today and test the applications everyone in the country will want tomorrow.”

Despite detractors that claim municipal/public broadband services are economic failures waiting to happen, EPB has delivered tangible economic benefits across the Chattanooga region and is now recognized internationally as one of the country’s most successful public broadband projects.

A study recently released by University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Finance professor Bento Lobo shows “the Gig Network” helped the Chattanooga area generate at least 2,800 new jobs and at least $865.3 million in economic and social benefits. The study also found the EPB smart grid, which is the cornerstone application of the utility’s community-wide fiber optic network, has allowed customers to avoid an estimated 124.7 million minutes of electric service interruptions by automatically re-routing power (often in less than a second) to prevent an outage or dramatically reduce outage duration.

EPB has proven so successful, it has attracted visitors from around the world to study how community fiber broadband can transform a local economy.

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Elsa
Elsa
8 years ago

Is that suppose to be good? 299 dollars a month for 10 GBs sounds extremely high to me. I have to wonder exactly how many people can afford a 300 dollar bill just for broadband. I know I could not, it makes me wonder if I should stop complaining about the 250 GBs I get a month for 52.77 dollars.

RickyBingo
RickyBingo
8 years ago
Reply to  Elsa

Considering Comcast charges the same amount for 1/5 the speed, it’s a steal. They also have a 1gbps package for $70, no data caps, again another steal. Makes me wish I lived in their area.

tacitus
tacitus
8 years ago
Reply to  RickyBingo

$299/month is not really a steal for any type of residential broadband, unless you’re running a server farm from home! I’m a heavy broadband user, and I only max out my 60mbps connection a handful of minutes a few times a week.

Kudos to EPB to show what can be done, but the market for this is extremely limited, and will be for the next few years at least.

lucy
lucy
8 years ago
Reply to  Elsa

You seem confused about the offer. 10 Gbps is the speed. The 250 GB you are talking about is a data cap, meaning you are not allowed to download more than 250 gigabytes in a month without paying extra.

Gb = gigabit; GB = gigabyte. There are 8 bits in a byte.

Doing the math, at 10 gigabits per second (if you could concieve actually going full-speed with this), you could download 10Gbps/8 = 1.25 Gigabytes per second, and you would blow thought your 250 GB cap in under 5 minutes.

ghjfvghcgh
ghjfvghcgh
8 years ago

Well its official, I’m moving to Chattanooga. The Rest of you can deal with ISP hell

kehi66
8 years ago

I sure wish we had a utility company willing to provide anywhere close to this service in Aiken SC. Especially, for the rural customers that cannot obtain any service with the local phone (AT&T) and cable (Atlantic Broadband) companies.

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