Fiber Optics Plan Gets EPB Board Approval

Next stop, the Chattanooga city council!

The EPB board of directors today unanimously approved a plan that would put high-speed fiber optics cables into every home in the service area. It would put the city-owned utility in direct competition with Comcast and ATT.

WDEF News 12's Bill Mitchell has the story.

The go ahead from the EPB board this morning was almost a formality since most of the members had already expressed enthusiasm for the fiber optics idea. Now the plan will be pitched to the Chattanooga city council next week, and many of those officials have also pledged support. The next step is to order some new equipment that would power the 2000 miles of fiber optic cable stretched over the entire service area.

There is at least one dissenting voice. The Tennessee Cable Telecommunications Association says it's illegal for a city-owned utility to engage in this type of competition.

HAROLD DEPRIEST, EPB PRES. & CEO "It is not illegal ..Tennessee state law is very specific in laying out a process to go through to get into this business for a municipality like EPB..we have followed that process meticulously."

If city council approves next week, EPB would got for a 220 million dollar bond issue to finance the expansion. Company officials say the expansion of fiber optics technology would provide electric service, telephone, internet and cable television service to the entire service area.

Skeptics would ask..is anyone else doing this successfully?

HAROLD DEPRIEST "In the state of Tennessee, Jackson,Tennessee has been in this business now for going on 3 years....you can talk to them and they'll tell you they are well ahead of their business plan..Pulaski,Tennessee has been in business for about 6 months and they are ahead of their business plan."

Would the ratepayers or taxpayers be left holding the bag is the plan fails?

HAROLD DEPRIEST "Our business plan will be profitable if 35 percent of the customers in the Chattanooga/Hamilton county area buy services from EPB."

Stacey Briggs, executive director of the Tennessee Telecommunications Association in Nashville tells WDEF News 12 by phone that her organization is considering a lawsuit against EPB to stop the proposed fiber optics expansion.