For many years we've tracked Chattanooga, Tennessee's attempt to wire the entire city with fiber to the home using the local public utility, Electric Power Board (EPB). Back in 2007, the city council voted 8-0 to approve the $200 million project. Despite several failed attempts by Comcast lawyers to cripple the effort, the plan moved forward to offer some of the best speeds and prices anywhere. By late 2010 the company started offering 1 Gbps connections to locals at a steep $350/month price point, though they've since introduced several bundle options including 30 Mbps and 50 Mbps tiers.
The project was originally projected to take ten years, but wound up taking three. With Chattanooga residents also having the option of AT&T U-Verse and Comcast Xfinity services, they're getting to see what competition looks like. That has included lower bundle pricing and being the first in the nation to see new services deployed, as Chattanooga is now a new project test market. The network has had the added benefit of attracting businesses looking for cheaper bandwidth to the area:
"In a lot of places, you can get the same kind of high speed service as Chattanooga. The difference is the price," said Dan Thompson with Knoxville-based IT company Claris Networks. "Connectivity there for us is about eight to ten times cheaper in Chattanooga than it is versus Knoxville or other cities. That's a huge deal when you're comparing $100 a month or $800 a month." Claris is rapidly expanding its business in Chattanooga due to the city's infrastructure.
It's all precisely the sort of thing Comcast was frightened of when they tried to sue the project out of oblivion five years ago.read comment(s)