Tennessee city that fought Comcast and won announces 10Gbps internet

If you live in Chattanooga, Tennessee, you may be in for a treat. EPB Fiber Optics is bringing 10Gbps internet speeds to the southern city, for “$299 per month with free installation, no contracts and no cancellation fees,” which it says is the fastest residential internet connection in the world.

Chattanooga already offers gigabit connections to every home and business in the city, a fact that caused major ISPs like Comcast and Time Warner Cable to ask the FCC to kill proposals that would allow the expansion of Chattanooga’s public broadband networks. After failing, Comcast began offering its own 2Gbps service in the city. The disparity between smaller ISPs and giant corporations like Comcast is growing starker by the day. While EPB Fiber Optics is increasing speeds and cutting away fees, Comcast has been testing a 300GB broadband cap just two hours away in Knoxville, Tennessee.

While EPB Fiber Optics may offer the fastest residential internet in the world, it’s not the first ISP to do so. Fibrant is Salisbury, North Carolina, and VTel in Springfield, Vermont both offer 10Gbps internet, albeit for $400 a month. Given their recent history, EPB Fiber Optics’ decision may eventually force the major ISPs’ hands to increase their broadband speeds, but that increase likely won’t come without another fight.