As a steadily growing city, it’s clear Chattanooga has much to offer new residents. For some, it’s the proximity to Atlanta and Nashville, or it’s the view of the Tennessee River as well as both Lookout and Signal mountains that align the landscape of the Scenic City.
But Chattanooga has another strong draw for newcomers, made obvious by another commonly known moniker: Gig City. It’s a reference to the high-speed fiber internet provided by the city’s public utility EPB since 2009.
The utility is so confident in its service, EPB boasts the claim that it provides the best internet service in the Western Hemisphere. And Chattanooga should be proud. Its internet service, offering gigabit upload and download speeds for under $100 a month, should be the envy of any city in America.
Most other municipalities in the country don’t even offer public internet service, much less speeds at that price.
But on a deeply ironic note, given Chattanooga’s publicly owned internet, most other cities do offer a basic service to residents that the Gig City does not: a public water utility.