Chattanooga, Tenn., public power utility EPB has launched the nation’s first community-wide 25 gigabits per second internet service to be available to all residential and commercial customers over a 100% fiber optic network with symmetrical upload and download speeds, it said on Aug. 24.

Through a partnership with Hamilton County and the City of Chattanooga, the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Convention Center is EPB’s first 25 Gig customer, making it the first convention center worldwide to offer such fast speeds over a broadband network, EPB said.

“With this technology, the Convention Center will be able to simultaneously provide high bandwidth connectivity to thousands of smart devices to draw business conferences, e-gaming competitions, live streaming events and more,” the utility noted.

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.

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 which other providers may offer only as customized design-build solutions for high-band width 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, EPB said in a news release.

EPB launched its community-wide Gig-speed internet service in September 2010, earning Chattanooga a reputation as “Gig City.” The 25 Gig enhancement follows a 2015 upgrade which made Chattanooga the first to offer 10 Gig internet service accessible by everyone across a community.

Additional details are available here.

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