Electric Power Board president and CEO Harold DePriest
A screen EPB uses to monitor gigabit Internet.EPB officials want the Federal Communications Commission to remove barriers preventing them from taking gigabit Internet into surrounding communities.
The Chattanooga power, telephone and Internet provider said so in a petition filed with the FCC, according to a Thursday news release.
EPB provides high-speed Internet to customers in its 600-square-mile electric service territory right now, thanks to its fiber optic network.
But “a digital desert exists just outside EPB’s electric service territory,” the company says.
Thursday’s release states that “for several years, EPB has received regular requests to help some of these communities obtain critical broadband Internet infrastructure.”