CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee— Chattanooga’s municipal-owned utility, EPB, has launched America’s first community-wide 25 Gig internet service delivered over a 100% fiber-optic network – and the Chattanooga Convention Center will be the first customer.
Through a partnership with Hamilton County and the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee, the Chattanooga Convention Center is EPB’s first 25 Gig customer, making it the first convention center in the country to offer such speeds over a PON fiber broadband network.
“The new 25 Gig internet service gives our convention center a major competitive advantage in drawing business conferences, conventions, e-gaming competitions and other events that bring tens of thousands of visitors and many millions of dollars in spending into our local economy,” said Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger.
“EPB is keeping Chattanooga on the cutting edge,” said Vicky Gregg, EPB Board Chair. “We are once again breaking the typical approach for internet service providers by proactively upgrading to the latest technologies in anticipation of future needs. Our goal is to enable new frontiers for technical innovation and job creation for our customers to the benefit of our whole community.”
Hamilton County and the city of Chattanooga have each dedicated $151,000 in infrastructure funding for a total of $302,000 to cover the cost of installing new networking equipment and Wi-Fi access points throughout the convention center, as well as much of the cost of providing multi-gig connectivity for the next five years. Once the new equipment is installed, visitors will be able to benefit from high-speed connectivity throughout the facility.
“EPB has continuously pushed the boundaries of what a utility can do for a city, and by launching 25-gigabit per second internet service community-wide, we have solidified Chattanooga’s competitive advantage as the premier destination for the country’s emerging knowledge innovation economy,” said Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly. “This new, incredible resource will not only attract businesses, entrepreneurs, and top talent from across the globe, it will also increase the quality of life for the tens of thousands of Chattanoogans who rely on high-quality, top-speed internet for remote work. Simply said, this is an unprecedented boon for our local economy.”
The launch of the new internet service is made possible by EPB’s ongoing, multi-year effort to upgrade the whole community-wide network from core to the optical networking equipment at customer locations with the latest optical signaling technology along with the deployment of Nokia’s symmetrical 25G PON (Passive Optical Network) fiber broadband technology. With Nokia 25 PON, EPB can provide 25 Gig internet services anywhere across its network while avoiding the need for one-off, point-to-point installations that other internet providers may offer only as customized design-build solutions for high-bandwidth commercial customers. As a result, companies typically bear the high cost of running the necessary fiber cabling to their locations along with all other construction costs.
In launching the 25 Gig internet service, EPB will also continue to partner with Arista Networks, which is providing the equipment to upgrade the convention space to Wi-Fi 6 with a multi-gig PoE campus switching platform. This will provide convention center visitors with high connection speeds on both wireless and wired networks. Arista’s security capabilities, which include WIPS (Wireless Intrusion Prevention System) coupled with IPFIX, will ensure the security and protection of visitor connections.
EPB launched its community-wide, Gig-speed internet service in September 2010, quickly earning Chattanooga a reputation as “Gig City.” Today’s 25 Gig enhancement follows a 2015 upgrade that made Chattanooga the first to offer 10 Gig internet service accessible by everyone across a community.
To learn more about EPB’s new 25 Gig internet service, visit epb.com/campaigns/25-gig.
