The fastest Internet service provider in America just got even faster.
The city of Chattanooga, Tennessee, is now offering fiber optic Internet connections at 10 gigabits (10,000 Mbps) per second, the Tech Times reports. The speed costs $299 per month, about six times the average cost of high-speed Internet in the U.S., a country known for exceptionally high prices for mediocre-at-best speeds.
But if six times the average cost sounds like a lot, the 10-gigabit speed measures in at 1,000 times faster than the average Internet connection. It’s also ten times faster than the famously speedy Google Fiber.
Chattanooga dubbed itself “Gig City” when the city-owned Electric Power Board (EPB) began offering 1 gigabit Internet to the city in 2010.
“Five years ago, Chattanooga and Hamilton County became the first in the United States to offer up to 1 Gig Internet speeds,” Harold DePriest, president and CEO of EPB, announced. “Today, we become the first community in the world capable of delivering up to 10 Gigs to all 170,000 households and businesses in our service area.”
Every house and business in a 600-square-mile area can now hook up with higher speeds. But can Chattanooga compete with the big private Internet companies?
The top of the annual America’s most hated companies list is made up of 25 percent Internet service providers, a good indication of how well the industry is doing in the public’s eyes.
Comcast sued Chattanooga to nix the plan in 2008 but failed. Just last year, American telecoms including Verizon and AT&T asked the Federal Communications Commission to block Chattanooga’s expansion.
Instead, Comcast will now have to compete by offering two-gigabit service, as they announced earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Chattanooga has its own success to brag about, including 2,800 new jobs and $865.3 million in economic benefits to the city, according to a University of Tennessee at Chattanooga study cited by the city.
H/T Tech Times | Illustration by Max Fleishman