Developer brings high-speed Internet to rural area

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) – The developer of a private mountaintop community outside of Chattanooga has found a novel way to get high-speed Internet in a rural area in Tennessee, but he had to go to Alabama to do it.

John “Thunder” Thornton, the owner and developer of Jasper Highlands, a development in Kimball, Tennessee, worked with the North Alabama Electrical Cooperative to get the high-speed Internet.

Thornton had backed a failed effort to expand broadband in rural areas. The proposal would have allowed municipal utilities that offer broadband to provide ultra-fast Internet outside their service area. It failed in the Legislature amid opposition from private Internet providers such as AT&T and Comcast.

Because of the current law, Chattanooga’s EPB utility cannot expand its ultra-fast Internet to rural customers like the mountaintop development.