EPB Fiber Optics offers 1 Gigabit broadband in Chattanooga via GPON

SEPTEMBER 13, 2010 -- EPB Fiber Optics, Chattanooga’s municipally owned fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network, and Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced the only 1-Gigabit broadband service in the United States for residential and business customers is now available citywide in Chattanooga, TN.

EPB operates a high-speed optical fiber network that today offers services to over 100,000 homes and businesses in the metropolitan Chattanooga and surrounding rural areas. With the new 1-Gigabit symmetrical service offering, Chattanooga offers the fastest broadband service in the country, and is tied with a handful of international communities for fastest in the world, EPB and Alcatel-Lucent assert.

Powered by Alcatel-Lucent’s GPON technology, Chattanooga’s new network will accommodate speeds of up to 1 Gbps, more than 200 times faster than the current national download speed average. Every home and business within EPB’s 600 square-mile, nine-county service area will be able to access the network.

“Chattanooga is light years ahead when it comes to providing ultra fast broadband,” said Tom Edd Wilson, president and CEO of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce. “By offering the fastest available speeds to a whole community comprising a diverse population living in both urban and rural areas, Chattanooga has become the living laboratory for today’s innovations and tomorrow’s companies.”

For the new EPB network, Alcatel-Lucent has deployed its 7342 Intelligent Services Access Manager Fiber-to-the-User (ISAM FTTU), 5520 Access Management System (AMS), 7750 Service Router, 7450 Ethernet Service Switch, 5620 Service Aware Manager and 5750 Subscriber Services Controller, along with the OmniSwitch 6850 Ethernet LAN switch. In addition, Alcatel-Lucent also is providing professional and consulting services.

Alcatel-Lucent says it is involved in more than 100 fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) projects worldwide, more than 85 of which are based on GPON technology. Alcatel-Lucent now has supplied PON-based equipment to support three 1-Gbps offerings worldwide: EPB Chattanooga (US), Hong Kong Broadband Network Limited, and ZON Multimedia (Portugal).

To learn more about Chattanooga, Tennessee’s new 1 Gigabit broadband service, please visit http://www.chattanoogagig.com.

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