The city that defeated Comcast now offers ten gigabit Internet service

Who needs Google Fiber? By itself, the Chattanooga Electric Power Board was able make Tennessee the home of the first city in the United States to offer city-wide gigabit Internet service, but it’s not stopping there. Yesterday, the city-owned utility announced that all of its 170,000 customers can now purchase ten gigabit Internet service, making it the third city to do so. What’s funny is that after Comcast tried, and failed, to sue the utility, it decided to launch its own two gigabit Internet service in Chattanooga, but now there’s a ten gigabit service that costs the same amount. 

Chattanooga’s EPB, which created America’s first “Gig city” five years ago with its citywide gigabit (1,000 Mbps) Internet service, is taking ultra-fast broadband connections to an even higher level with the addition of 10 Gig service throughout Chattanooga. The city-owned utility announced today that it is now offering 10 gigabit broadband to any of EPB’s 170,000 customers. The 10 Gig service will be offered to any residential customer for $299 per month, compared with the $69.99 for EPB’s current single gig service. Chattanooga appears to be the third city to offer such a service, but it is by far the largest. Vermont Telephone offered 10-gig service to its 18,000 customers in Springfield, Vermont in June 2015, and Salisbury, North Carolina offered to service to its 33,000 customers in North Carolina in September. EPB and city leaders are announcing the new service today during Chattanooga’s Startup Week, which is trying to capitalize on Chattanooga’s faster broadband connections to attract and nurture more tech startup businesses. EPB’s announcement comes three months after Comcast Corp., sought to race past EPB’s single gig service with its new Gigabit Pro service in Chattanooga and others cities, promising in May to deliver broadband speeds of 2 gigabits per second.