Internet 2.0 comes to Chattanooga

Chattanooga led the nation in bringing the fastest Internet speeds to an entire city when the Electric Power Board (EPB) pioneered gigabit-per-second Internet service along its fiber optic network in 2010. So far, more than 5,200 Chattanooga residents and businesses have signed up for the blazing-fast Internet service, which is about 200 times faster than most other broadband service. In addition to those signed up for the gigabit-per-second Internet service by EPB, more than 65,000 other Chattanoogans are subscribers to other EPB FIber services, including cable TV, telephone and other broadband Internet options. While EPB expects to net nearly $13.2 million of income this year on $111.7 million of sales from its fiber optic network, city boosters see an even bigger payoff for other businesses, especially from linking the Gig City with other smart cities, Internet developers and research institutions.

In what is being billed as "Internet 2.0," Chattanooga and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga were recently connected to a nationwide network of 60 research universities, including many that are exploring data transmission and computer technologies that will need the Gig to distribute information to end users. In partnership with US Ignite and the Enterprise Center, UTC recently acquired and activated a GENI (Global Environment for Network Innovations) rack that links Chattanooga with high-speed Internet connections to others across the country.