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 Bellhops, the code builder and development platform builder Skuid, the online counseling service WeCounsel and the global ship security startup International Maritime Security Associates to Chattanooga. "The fiber optic infrastructure in Chattanooga has already brought tremendous value to the community," says University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Economist Bento Lobo, who estimates EPB's fiber optic network generated $1.3 billion of community benefits in its first five years. "I expect that we are likely to benefit even more in the future as the need for greater bandwidth and cyber security increases," Lobo says.

[This story was published Dec 31, 2019]