Tennessee panel hears arguments on utilities’ Net services

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A lobbyist for Tennessee’s cable industry on Wednesday declared all government-owned broadband services in the state to be a failure.

John Farris of the Tennessee Cable Telecommunications Association urged members of the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations to hold the line against allowing utilities to offer high-speed Internet access beyond their service areas.

Representatives of the Chattanooga electric utility, which recently unveiled the nation’s first 10-gigabit Internet service available to all electric customers, disagreed with Farris’ assessment.

Chattanooga has billed itself as the “Gig City” since its EPB utility began offering 1 gigabit-per-second service about five years ago. That’s 40 times faster than the Federal Communications Commission’s 25-megabit standard for what should be considered broadband.

About one in six Tennesseans lives in areas where Internet service is only available at speeds lower than 25 megabits, said Mike Knotts, director of government affairs for the Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association.

Movies that take about half an hour to download at 25 megabits would take 30 seconds at 1 gigabit. And at speeds of 10 gigabits, that movie would be available in 3 seconds.

EBP President Harold DePriest told reporters outside the meeting that he doesn’t understand why lawmakers won’t allow that service to be offered in outlying areas that are either underserved or completely unserved by broadband.

“Instead of talking about how we get this type of service to people in rural areas in Tennessee, we’re talking about who should do it,” he said.

The issue is the subject of legislation awaiting lawmakers when they return to session in January and a federal court challenge filed by state Attorney General Herbert Slatery against an FCC decision to override state laws preventing Chattanooga’s super-fast Internet from being offered in outlying areas.