President Barack Obama speaks at Cedar Falls Utilities on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015, in Cedar Falls, Iowa.President Barack Obama lifted up Chattanooga for a second consecutive day as an example of what high-speed Internet service can bring to a community, calling the Scenic City “a tornado of innovation.”
In a speech Wednesday in Cedar Falls, Iowa — another city with gigabit-per-second Internet speed through its municipal utility — Obama praised the turnaround in Chattanooga.
Obama said as “an old railroad town” Chattanooga was once the dirtiest city in the nation and suffered more than most during the recession.
“But that did not stop them from building America’s first citywide, high-speed, fiber network — right down the middle of downtown,” Obama said Wednesday. “Today, a new generation of engineers and entrepreneurs has moved down to Chattanooga.”
Obama credited EPB’s high-speed broadband started four years ago for helping to spur more technology and innovation in the city.