CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — A city once infamous for the smoke-belching foundries that blanketed its buildings and streets with a heavy layer of soot is turning to lightning-fast Internet speeds to try to transform itself into a vibrant tech hub.
Through a combination of political will and federal stimulus money, 175-year-old Chattanooga became the first U.S. city to broadly offer a gigabit per second internet speeds — nearly 50 times the national broadband average.
Whether that's enough to turn a modest southern city into a mini Silicon Valley remains to be seen, but local leaders are betting they've positioned themselves well for what lies ahead in the global economy.
"This is an old town with a new vision," said Aaron Welch, who became a hero of the emerging tech scene when he sold his app that reserves specific tables at restaurants to a rival for $11.5 million.
Other startups migrating to the "Gig City" to tap into the government-owned broadband network include 3D Ops, which converts MRI or CT scans into anatomical replicas to help doctors prepare for surgeries; shoemaker Feetz, which makes custom footwear using 3D printing technology; and moving service Bellhops, which coordinates the logistics of managing 8,000 college student contractors nationwide.
The nascent tech scene is the latest development in Chattanooga's decades-long effort to reinvent itself after a 1969 federal study called it the most polluted U.S. city.
A downtown revival over the last two decades was anchored by the Tennessee Aquarium and a $120 million redevelopment of the Tennessee River waterfront. German automaker Volkswagen in 2008 cited the city's turnaround in its decision to build a $1 billion assembly plant on the site of a former TNT plant.
The city inaugurated its fiber optic network — with a $111 million boost from the 2009 federal stimulus package — even as larger cities like Atlanta and Nashville wait for private providers like AT&T and Google to roll out comparable service.
"We're at a pivotal time in the relationship between cities and communications networks," said Susan Crawford, a professor at Harvard Law School who has written extensively about the power of Internet providers. "And there are mayors all over the country who are watching Chattanooga with envy and wishing and planning for fiber optic networks of their own."
While commercial providers pick and choose which neighborhoods to serve, Chattanooga's network covers the city.
"The whole point is that you want everyone to have this capacity, and not to leave anyone behind," said Crawford.
Chattanooga's fiber network grew out of efforts to install a smart electric grid in a city where tornados and ice storms have caused serious power outages. During the upgrade, the Electric Power Board, or EPB, also issued $226 million in bonds to help fund a fiber optic network, hoping the super fast phone and Internet service would attract new business.
According to the Federal Communications Commission, the average broadband speed in 2013 was 21.2 megabits per second. A gigabit equals 1,000 megabits.
"Our competitors have said things like, 'Oh nobody needs a gig,'" EPB's president and CEO Harold DePriest said at a recent tech forum in a converted downtown church. "That's absolutely true. But how many of us need color TV? We have color TV because we want color TVs.
0 comments:
Post a Comment