Independent research report has documented the benefit since energy and connectivity company EPB built America’s first gig-speed community-wide network.
Independent research has documented a $2.69bn in community benefit during the first 10 years since energy and connectivity company EPB built America’s first gig-speed community-wide network and used it to establish an advanced smart grid power distribution system in Chattanooga.
The new study was conducted by Bento Lobo, head of the Department of Finance and Economics, at the Rollins College of Business at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
David Wade, EPB president and CEO, explained that Chattanooga’s smart city infrastructure was designed as a platform to give its customers the power to do more. “From education and innovation to job creation, it’s amazing to see how our customers are realising possibilities we could only imagine 10 years ago.”
The report also examines the pressure and use of the fibre network in the Covid-19 era. In comparing a typical pre-Covid day (March 4, 2020) to a typical Covid day (December 14, 2020), EPB has seen a 75 per centre increase in the total volume of internet bandwidth usage over the course of the day. EPB said that many companies (and schools) have “outsourced” the traffic that once flowed across their internal networks to Chattanooga’s community-wide internet.
EPB has also seen a 64 per cent increase in peak bandwidth usage, which still occurs during the prime time hours of the evening and is correlated to more video streaming. Because Chattanooga has a fibre optic network, the community has been able to transition to more intensive internet bandwidth usage utilising in-place infrastructure.
Key community benefits from Chattanooga’s advanced infrastructure include:
“The true economic value of the fiber optic infrastructure for EPB’s customers is much greater than the cost of installing and maintaining the infrastructure”
“The true economic value of the fiber optic infrastructure for EPB’s customers is much greater than the cost of installing and maintaining the infrastructure,” said Dr Lobo. “Our latest research findings show that Chattanooga’s fibre optic network provides additional value because it provides high speeds, with symmetrical uploads and downloads, and a high degree of network responsiveness which are necessary for the smart grid and other cutting-edge business, educational and research applications.”
EPB delivers electricity to more than 170,000 homes and businesses across our 600 square mile service area which includes most of Hamilton County as well as parts of surrounding counties in both Tennessee and Georgia.
In 2010, EPB Fibre Optics, which offers internet, TV and telephone services, became the first provider in the US to deliver up to 1Gb internet speeds utilising a community-wide fibre optic network which is accessible to every home and business in its service area.
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