Chattanooga Citywide Internet Service Is Getting a Speed Boost - Government Technology

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(TNS) — As EPB's manager of fibre services engineering and 1 of the utility's tech pros, Matt Anderson has been investigating EPB's caller Smart Net Plus for the past 9 months.

Even with EPB's citywide fibre connections, Anderson has recovered the caller Wi-Fi 6 router and Smart Net Plus to beryllium a large vantage successful some the velocity of Internet connections for his family's galore location devices and successful the controls helium has gained implicit accessing galore of the devices, ranging from astute thermostats to schoolhouse laptops to streaming tv sets.

"We were conscionable utilizing a azygous router for our home, and we decidedly saw a existent quality and instantly realized however overmuch amended the Internet was successful each of the antithetic corners of our house," Anderson said successful a telephone interview. "Everything conscionable seemed to beryllium a batch much reliant, and arsenic a parent, I besides truly similar the parental controls you tin acceptable up implicit erstwhile and what is accessed connected immoderate instrumentality and to person the ad-blocking features this provides."

Anderson is 1 of EPB's tech pros helping EPB consumers to usage the caller Smart Net Plus option, which EPB has begun offering this autumn for a monthly interest of $17.99 per period successful summation to Internet plans that commencement astatine $57.99 monthly. Customers with 1-gigabit Internet plans are eligible for discounted Smart Net Plus astatine $14.99 per month.

"From doorbells and speakers to TVs and tablets, households necessitate much velocity and bandwidth to accommodate the expanding fig of devices and streaming apps they use," EPB Vice President of New Products Katie Espeseth said successful an announcement of the caller service. "Smart Net Plus adjusts to customers' needs and provides the dependable Wi-Fi work they request and entree to best-in-class exertion and work without the request to support up with costly instrumentality requirements."

The caller features with EPB's Wi-Fi 6 web not lone amended velocity and sum for Wi-Fi work but besides supply apps to let greater parental controls, advertisement blocking technologies and further information protections.

Already, astir 500 of the 128,000 customers that subscribe to immoderate level of EPB Fiber services person ordered the caller Smart Net Plus service.

"This takes our Internet work to a higher level," EPB President David Wade told the EPB committee Friday.

Customers whitethorn motion up online astatine epb.com oregon speech with the tech pros to find retired much astatine 423-648-1372.

"We've tried to marque the process of going done this precise elemental and easy," Anderson said. "Once an installation day is scheduled, we travel out, instal immoderate hardware is necessary, and we instrumentality the clip to marque definite you person bully Wi-Fi sum everyplace you request it and that each of your devices are connected and working."

EPB — the city-owned electrical inferior — expanded into Internet, video and telephone work successful 2009 erstwhile it launched EPB Fiber to assistance physique some a astute powerfulness grid and its telecommunications services. A twelvemonth later, EPB helped marque Chattanooga "The Gig City" by offering 1,000 megabits per 2nd residential Internet speeds (The Gig) — the fastest citywide Internet speeds successful the country.

In 2015, EPB was the archetypal inferior to connection citywide 10-gigabit service, and earlier this year, EPB again boosted its Internet velocity capableness to 25 gigs.

So far, lone the Chattanooga Convention Center has signed up for the 25-gigabit service. EPB's 25-gigabit work is beyond the capableness of astir routers, and Internet work providers elsewhere whitethorn not adjacent beryllium capable to grip truthful overmuch information truthful quickly. Initially, EPB volition complaint residential customers $1,500 a period for the 25-gigabit work and $12,500 a period for commercialized customers.

"We've had rather a spot of involvement but nary different customers yet," Wade said. "We've really had a batch of calls astir it from crossed the country."

While EPB adds its caller Wi-Fi 6 service, the inferior is besides moving during the adjacent twelvemonth oregon 2 to regenerate each of its first-generation acceptable boxes utilized for its video service. The EPB tv service, which was erstwhile subscribed to by astir EPB Fiber customers, present comprises little than 30% of each of EPB's Fiber customers.

Wade said galore video customers person "cut the cord" and moved to streaming video options, though EPB inactive has astir 38,000 customers of its tv service, Wade said.

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