EPB's Katie Espeseth on delivering the 'world's fastest Internet' in Chattanooga

NASHVILLE – Fiber Connect 2022 – EPB is an electric power distributor, independently operated and municipally owned by the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Formerly known as the Electric Power Board, EPB started building fiber in 2008 and today has roughly 11,000 miles of fiber deployed, passing all 185,000 homes and businesses in its footprint.

That has made a significant difference for the city, said Katie Espeseth, vice president of new products at EPB. Over 200 new startups have set up their businesses in Chattanooga in the last few years, 74% of which are still operating, she said. The city has also seen 9,500 new jobs created over the last ten years, over half of which are in the high-tech sector.

Espeseth joined Light Reading at the Fiber Connect conference to discuss the progress Chattanooga has made with fiber delivery, how it's paved the way for economic growth and more.

Here are a few topics discussed in this video:

• How customers are using EPB's gigabit and 10-Gig services (01:40)
• How EPB has evolved as a service provider (04:20)
• Owning the "world's fastest Internet" space (05:28)
• What role federal funding might play in EPB's broadband future (06:24)

Related stories and links:

• Four forces driving 1-Gig as 'new global standard' – report
• DZS CEO talks M&A, fiber funding and the need for 1-Gig broadband
• Ziply Fiber goes wide with 2-Gig and 5-Gig broadband tiers
• EPB: 10Gbit/s Service Feasible Within a Year (2015)

— Kelsey Kusterer Ziser, Senior Editor, Light Reading; and Nicole Ferraro, Site Editor, Broadband World News