Dave Flessner

Infrastructure Bill May Significantly Boost Tennessee Broadband

The $65 billion allocated to improve broadband internet access in the infrastructure law President Biden signed November 15 should make broadband more accessible and affordable for lower-income households across the US, including the 13 percent of Tennessee households that lack any broadband connections to the internet. US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm recently praised Chattanooga (TN)'s city-owned utility, EPB, for pioneering the first citywide Gig internet service as part of its fiber-optic network built more than a decade ago to create a smarter and more versatile electric grid.

2020 Trend: Gig City's second decade will deliver more speed, innovation

The $226.8 million investment American electric power and telecommunications company EPB launched in 2009 on fiber optic technology has helped to transform EPB and Chattanooga (TN). By boasting the fastest citywide internet service in the Western Hemisphere with Gig service in 2010 and 10 Gig service by 2015, EPB secured Chattanooga's claim as "the Gig City" and has helped anchor the Innovation District, with many businesses developed or drawn to Chattanooga by the fast internet links. High-speed connections from EPB helped attract and grow such online startups as the moving service Bellhop

EPB, Chattanooga's municipal power utility, tops 100,000 fiber optic customers

When EPB, Chattanooga's municipal power utility, launched its Internet, video, and phone services nearly a decade ago in conjunction with its efforts to build a smarter electric grid, the city-owned utility projected it should attract more than 30,000 customers of its telecom services within five years to cover its costs and break even.

Senate Candidates in Tennessee Differ on Bringing Internet to Rural Areas

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said she thinks Tennessee's approach to providing high-speed Internet and broadband services to rural areas "has worked well in our state" and she reiterated her opposition to having government utilities like EPB expand outside their territories to compete with AT&T, Comcast and other private telecom companies.

Tennessee Governor candidates want better internet in rural areas

GOP nominee for Gov of TN Bill Lee may run a $225 million-a-year business and live in the wealthiest county in TN, but when he connects to the internet at his cattle farm in Fernvale (TN), he has to use a satellite dish. "Like a lot of rural areas, we still don't have broadband and when there is a storm, we play a lot of Yahtzee at home," Lee said. But Lee said the lack of access to high-speed internet service is no fun and games for many rural residents.

Electric co-ops eager to expand broadband connections to rural areas

Many of the power cooperatives that helped electrify rural Tennessee in the 1930s and 1940s are gearing up for a similar effort to bring high-speed broadband to rural areas not connected to today's information superhighway. But similar to electrification of the South in the early 20th century, the telecommunications upgrades for rural broadband are likely to be costly and take years or even decades to fully implement.

Gig City's High-Speed Internet Doesn't Reach All Residents

Chattanooga (TN) offers the fastest Internet connections in America along fiber-optic links stringing out from a revitalized downtown. But urban planners taking part in the Vanguard Next City conference still found physical and economic barriers separating the central city and its Gig technology with nearby neighborhoods, especially the Westside.

The barriers are both physical and economic. To get to nearby businesses and jobs, many of those living in the College Hill Courts public housing project cut through a chained-link fence and walked through a field to cross US Highway 27 and connect with downtown. And many Westside residents can’t afford Chattanooga’s superfast Internet.

But that could change if the city implements the winning suggestions from the Chattanooga Challenge that ended the fifth annual Next City conference. A team of government and civic leaders from across the country suggested that Chattanooga offer free Wi-Fi service to College Hill Courts to bridge the digital divide and develop a new pathway to connect downtown and the neighborhood.