#1403 2010 · EPB (Chattanooga Electric Power Board) · public utilities / broadband
An Electric Utility Builds America's Fastest Internet
the problem
Chattanooga's grid needed smart-grid communications, and incumbent broadband wouldn't build citywide fiber at all.
background
In 2005 EPB, Chattanooga's community-owned electric utility, began planning a fiber-optic network across its 600-square-mile footprint, not for internet but to install a smart electric grid, which relies on fast, reliable two-way communication between utility equipment.
The infrastructure was built out across Chattanooga and Hamilton County, Tennessee by 2010 at a cost of $396 million. Two major lines of business emerged from the same fiber: the smart grid, and retail broadband. In 2010 EPB rolled out symmetrical gigabit internet, at the time the fastest in the western hemisphere.
what everyone would do
Wait for telecom incumbents to upgrade, or subsidize them to cover the whole city.
what they saw
The grid had to communicate anyway. Let the utility's own smart-grid needs pay for citywide fiber, and broadband becomes a byproduct at near-zero marginal cost: bold infrastructure on the back of boring necessity.
the move
One fiber network carries two businesses. The grid's communication needs, real-time monitoring, outage management, metering, provide the anchor demand that justifies the build, while the utility's existing poles, conduits and rights-of-way make it constructible. Retail broadband then rides the same glass at near-zero marginal cost, letting a power company offer symmetrical gigabit citywide, including neighborhoods commercial ISPs had skipped.
why it works
The smart grid supplies guaranteed anchor demand and existing rights-of-way, cutting the build's risk and cost; retail broadband reuses capacity that already exists, and public ownership aligns coverage of every neighborhood over cherry-picking.
the payoff
Built by 2010 for $396M; broadband passed 35% penetration within three years and about 70% of homes by 2025 (UTC white paper).
where it breaks
It fails where law bars municipal retail telecom, where the utility lacks consumer billing and service DNA, and if the anchor application's own case is weak, leaving the second business to carry the whole cost of the build.
what came after
The 'Gig City' became the reference case for municipal broadband and a magnet for startups and remote work; utility-anchored fiber is now studied worldwide.
references
- [1]How Does High-Speed Broadband Benefit a Community? (CRER White Paper 12)The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, 2025utc.edu