I learned a few new things today about EPB's "Fiber To The Home" project and thought I'd pass them on for my fellow consumers of media. Instead of story form, I'm just going to list them as bulletpoints.
- Rollout begins this fall or winter
- Densely populated areas in downtown Chattanooga will be served first
- Fiber TV will include at a minimum currently offered channels in the market, plus more HD content
- Fiber Internet will launch at speeds of 10mbps to 50mbps, current market top speed is 8mbps
- Upload and download speeds will be the same
- Cost of bundled services will be 5 to 15% less than current market offerings
- 80% of market served in 3 years, 100% of market served in 5 years
- Fiber capacity is limited only by electronics, so as technology improves, speed and content should improve too
- Fiber line runs directly from provider to the home, nothing to "choke" the signal
- Growing businesses want quick data moving capability, so this project could spur economic development
- Chattanooga will become the largest service area being fed by a municipal power organization in the country once complete
- Fiber already exists downtown. Unum, Erlanger, and Blue Cross have been using it for several years
[1]