Chattanooga introduces country’s first community-wide 25 Gig network

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The world’s fastest internet just got faster.” — David Wade, EPB CEO 🤜 🫳 🎤

We’ve known for a while now that Chattanooga is home to the world’s fastest internet thanks to EPB, but breaking that record wasn’t quite enough — now, EPB is introducing the country’s very first community-wide 25 Gig network.

What does this mean?

All residential + commercial customers will have access to even faster internet speeds. For the average Joe, this means faster internet for your at-home Zoom calls and remote work life + your family that’s watching Netflix, checking Instagram, and reading their favorite daily newsletter all at once.

In the commercial realm, this will not only be a benefit for Chattanooga’s existing companies (plus other sectors like education + healthcare), but will serve as another reason for all companies — large or small — to explore Chattanooga as a place to grow their business.

EPB will also be able to support rapidly-growing industries like gaming, telehealth, robotic manufacturing, and others that rely on + drive the need for bandwidth.

In the words of Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly, it will solidify Chattanooga as a primary hub for America’s innovation economy.

How do they do it?

Man, we wish we knew. According to the experts, “the latest upgrade uses 25GS PON (25 Gigabit Symmetrical Passive Optical Network) line cards incorporated into the same fiber nodes and uses the same fiber used for the existing GPON and XGS-PON network.” 😅

What we can wrap our heads around is the fact that the Chattanooga Convention Center is EPB’s first 25 Gig customer. Now, the center will be able to simultaneously provide high bandwidth connectivity to thousands of smart devices — aka, drawing more business conferences, e-gaming competitions, live streaming events, and more tourism dollars to Chattanooga.

Chattanooga is a perfect example, I’d like to think, of how a mid-sized city can do very big things, and we’re continuing that tradition today.” — Mayor Tim Kelly