How Chattanooga beat Google Fiber by half a decade

They may not realize it, but starting today, some high-end Internet subscribers in Chattanooga, Tenn., will turn on their computers and start browsing the Web at a gigabit per second — 10 times the speeds they’re used to. By month’s end, some 39,000 area residents will see their mid-tier connections become twice as fast — from a current 50 megabits per second to 100. Better yet, the majority of these customers won’t pay a penny for the upgrade.

For that, city residents have an unlikely business to thank: the publicly owned electric utility.

By Brian Fung

Full Story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/09/17/how-chattanooga-beat-google-fiber-by-half-a-decade/