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Kinda, not quite right.

Just checked at https://epbfi.com/internet/, 100 Mbps is $57.99... not free, but not bad. Triple-play goes for $132.82. It ain't Sweden, but not awful.

And whereas Bob the Politician would like campaign funding for keeping his job (would that be a part-time or a full-time job, by the way? term limits? what's the pay? does he really give a shit about keeping that job in a local city council?), he can get a lot more campaign donations by getting into bed with commercial internet providers with deeper pockets then some small-change locals.

And while one state's corruption laws vary from another's, a politician putting his friend (or relative) in charge of a government program, and then receiving campaign donations back, is at least easy-pickings for a local TV eye-team investigation report. Taking such a man's seat in the next election would be like shooting a fish in a barrel... just run on a campaign of anti-corruption and eliminating government waste. I'll bet Frontier or Comcast would be happy to pay for printing up your campaign signs.

And don't think customers who get service from Frontier don't send money through the Council's hands. Be it through fees or taxes, the City gets paid. Always. The only difference is whether there are shareholders who get a piece of the action.

When Comcast runs the Internet, a substantial cut of the profit goes to shareholders, and another cut goes to expanding territory and growth, again to please shareholders to thereby drive up stock price and raise the value of the company, further increasing the wealth of the shareholders. When the City sets up its own internet, all profit goes back to the City to be redistributed by the Council, maybe to upgrade equipment, maybe to fix roads or schools, maybe as a local tax cut.

If the City Council's internet starts to suck, well, the customers are also voters, and they can replace a politician, maybe with the guy next door. On the other hand, if Comcast starts to suck in a town where there's no competition, customers can call customer service and wait on hold until they go insane. Comcast has enough customers that they don't have to listen to any customers. They only have to listen to shareholders... that is, shareholders with enough voting stock to threaten the sitting Board of Directors (currently, their stock price is $55.81, for just one little share; you can look up how many shares you'd have to buy to get anyone at the company to listen to you).

The point is, if you're a Chattanooga customer, and you're upset, you have a lot better chance of someone giving a shit than if you're a Comcast customer. Local politicians can fuck things up, sure, but unless the local politician is aiming to move higher to state of federal office (where the money is), then he's got to live with you, and probably would just as well keep you happy and off his lawn. A board member or senior management in Comcast, on the other hand, will never give a shit about who you are or what you think of your service, ever, unless maybe you start a class-action lawsuit, or a local broadband initiative in your home town. Then, you'll hear from their lawyers.

This AC is referring to this company, the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga. I've heard it is epic, but I moved away from there years ago.

Chattanooga has symmetric 1gbps internet available to the entire city and suburbs for the same price as google fiber (but no "zero-cost" option for low speed). And, as a plus, it isn't google, it is the local electricity co-op.

https://epbfi.com/internet/

But wait... That sounds like..., like... socialism! I thought that socializing anything (except corporate expenses, where you can swing it) was bad. I just don't know what to think anymore. I knew that the public utility model has been extremely effective in delivering inexpensive and reliable electrical power to large portions of the U.S., but now you're telling me that the same model will work for internet service too? How can this be? I mean, the challenges of delivering both services are virtually the same but... Oh...

Chattanooga has symmetric 1gbps internet available to the entire city and suburbs for the same price as google fiber (but no "zero-cost" option for low speed). And, as a plus, it isn't google, it is the local electricity co-op.

https://epbfi.com/internet/

Well, I have 1,000Mbps in my area; the fastest internet service in the US. See this news article published in 2010 about EPBfi.

All 100,000 customers have EPB power (this is the local electric power company in Chattanooga, TN, USA). Because of EPB's electric smartgrid, they also provide fiber to 100% of their coverage area. This means that every home/business/apartment has access to Gbit Internet and TV/phone.

The slowest speed they currently offer is 50Mbps (for $57.99 per month), the fastest is 1000Mbps($299.99). I am on 100Mbps because it is only $12 more per month than 50Mbps.

Oh, and there are no max bandwidth/transfer caps. You can do 1000Mbps all day long...EPBfi has the upstream bandwidth.

I was on Comcast for 8 years. I telecommute most days; Comcast would go down for hours at a time for no apparent reason. When I would phone Comcast to report the outages, the customer service rep would say that they are upgrading the services in my area. The service person would say it as if that was the script on their screen as why the internet went down for 2 hours at 11am and again at 4pm. It got so bad over the course of a year, that I had to purchase a Sprint broadband card/account to continue to get work done as I came to just expect outages. I could not tell a client that I was having internet connectivity issues when I am doing remote-based network consulting.) ;)

After switching to EPBfi 2 years ago, I haven't had a SINGLE service-affecting outage. They appear to have built their Internet infrastructure as solidly as they build their power distribution network.

Feel free to read more here: https://epbfi.com/internet/

Oh, BTW, I don't own stock in EPB or work for them....I am a customer that likes to pay for internet that works reliably.

Here is a news article published in 2012 about Chattanooga's upgrade of all customers from 30Mbps to 50Mbps.

It is interesting how none of the big media giants want to provide the additional speed/reliability; I guess if you can feed your customers sewage and tell them it's honey...and the customers believe it, more money goes in your pocket.

Chattanooga has fiber through https://www.epbfi.com/ From their website, 50/50 is $57.99, 100/100 is $69.99 up to 1G/1G @ $299.99. I think they they ran fiber on the power poles throughout the city. I don't know how they got around the monopolies, but I'm happy to see that they did. Though they're not cheap, the certainly demolish the incumbents' offerings on the mid to high end. My hope is that neighboring towns will feel the pressure of competition and we'll finally get to where we should have been 10-15 years ago.

why would Google make it onto the test when EPB doesn't? this obviously has naught to do with "fastest ISPs," whatever that would even mean. really they mean residential "broadband" access speeds over international common carriers.

sadly, they would probably include Google among this list just for political reasons.

Or did they just have a crappy route to their test server? If I could make a living in Chattanooga TN and the wife be ok with it, I'd move in a heartbeat. The local city owned electrical company has HTTP on the cheap. Their base service is faster (50mbps symetrical) and cheaper than my base service with Comcrap: https://epbfi.com/enroll/packages/#/

Seriously wish that could happen where I live, but it will never happen. Sad thing is, the available ISPs and speeds are a factor in my choice of domicile. My wife rolls her eyes at that statement, yet she bitches when the internets are slow or don't work; go figure. I've got her on the same page now that we're on Comcrap and shit breaks on occasion. Who said it was impossible to get the wife on your side? I just use logic, point stuff out, and she'll come over to my side on things we disagree on in most cases. I just haven't gotten her on my side when it comes to guns yet, but I haven't made the effort to shoot down her lame arguments with facts yet; no pun intended.

Chattanooga does have gigabit fiber to the home. It's not dirt cheap, but if you are decently employed, and love the high speed, you might be willing to pay the $350/mo.

EPB Fiber Optics

Move to Chattanooga, Tennessee and you can get close with 1Gbps:

• https://epbfi.com/internet/
• http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/09/13/2040211/Gigabit-Speeds-At-Home-In-the-US

I realize it's 500 Mbps slower than 1.5 Gbps, but given those speeds and current consumer capabilities, what's 500 Mbps among friends? (at least for the next few months)

Hah, riiight.

As fun as it is to say that, not only does Chattanooga have electricity, Chattanooga also has the fastest residential internet service in the country (I think). 1gbit fiber to your home for $350/mo.

So do we in the US, although Chattanooga, TN is the only place to have it, as far as I know.

https://epbfi.com/you-pick/

Verizon FIOS has nothing on "Fi-Internet" in Chattanooga, TN. 1000 Mbps to your house for $350/month.

https://epbfi.com/internet/

Just over a month ago, Slashdot reported 1000Mb connections (up and down) to the home for $349.99 per month covering all of Chattanooga, TN.

I can order it where I live...and, no contract for this fiber to the home connection either. If you want to hear it from the horses mouth, read it here.

Also, I discovered that by adding a home phone (delivered via the same fiber) to that quote, the total price actually drops to $317.03 per month.

I have no personal affiliation with EPB, but I do think it is uber-cool that I could upgrade to 1Gb by making a phone call and paying [a lot] more each month. Their 30Mb up/down for $57.99 is enough for me. :)

and before people tout about the high price, other tiers are available. https://epbfi.com/you-pick/

And for who actually believe the 1Gb service will reach anywhere near the advertised speed, there's a special page for you too. https://epbfi.com/you-prick/

and before people tout about the high price, other tiers are available. https://epbfi.com/you-pick/

And for who actually believe the 1Gb service will reach anywhere near the advertised speed, there's a special page for you too. https://epbfi.com/you-prick/

I know nothing about it, but my guess is that it's only 1 Gbps to the router room of the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga. From there it presumably rides their T1 to the Internet. (Or whatever they have.) Also, it's probably 1 Gbps download / 128 Kbps upload.

It's symmetrical. https://epbfi.com/you-pick/#/fi-speed-internet-1000

and before people tout about the high price, other tiers are available. https://epbfi.com/you-pick/