Tennessee lawmakers gearing up for broadband battle

There are thousands of rural residents in Southeast Tennessee who live near Chattanooga's (TN) fastest-in-the-nation Internet service offered by EPB but are still waiting for even basic broadband connections. Private telecommunication companies say it is too costly to serve sparsely populated areas of the state, and state law restricts EPB from expanding its telecommunications territory outside of where it supplies power to connect people. That could change in 2016 if the Tennessee Legislature agrees to lift its territorial restriction on where city utilities may offer telecommunication services or a court upholds a decision in 2015 by the Federal Communications Commission overturning Tennessee's limits on municipal broadband.

EPB President Harold DePriest said the city-owned utility in Chattanooga is eager to offer its fiber-optic telecom services throughout Bradley County, if state law is changed to allow for such an expansion. But with a state legal challenge to the FCC still pending and ongoing studies on rural broadband being done by both legislative and executive agencies, legislative leaders warn not to count on such a change in 2016. "I don't see the Legislature doing a lot this year when we have two studies underway that we are paying for at the same time we have a court challenge to the FCC ruling," said Senate Pro Tempore Bo Watson, one of nine members of the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee that must approve any change. "We don't need to be in any rush to make a judgment." But backers of the change insist the state doesn't need more study to know there are gaps in broadband coverage in Tennessee preventing much of the state from sharing in distance education, telemedicine, telework and broadband-dependent businesses and entertainment.