The inaugural U.S. Broadband Awards hosted by Questex’s Fierce Telecom named EPB Best Municipal Connectivity Program. Awards were featured during Questex’s U.S. Broadband Summit which hosted leaders from service providers, state and federal broadband offices, trade associations and more to address leading topics in the industry.
Alejandro Piñero, head of content, Fierce Technology Group at Questex, said, “Congratulations to the winners of the inaugural U.S. Broadband Awards. We were extremely impressed with the submissions and look forward to watching them be implemented to connect the underserved and unconnected.”
In 2021, an independent study documented nearly $2.7 billion in community benefit during the first 10 years of EPB’s community-wide fiber optic network and smart grid power distribution system:
• Creation and retention of 10,000 jobs, about 40 percent of all jobs created in Hamilton County during the study period;
• Annual decrease of 55 percent in outage minutes providing EPB customers with an average of $26.6 million in savings each year by helping them avoid spoilage, lost productivity and other negative impacts;
• Attraction of $110 million in Smart City research and earned designation as Living Laboratory by U.S.
Department of Energy; and
• Helping bridge the digital divide for education with the launch of HCS (Hamilton County Schools) EdConnect, high-speed internet service provided at no charge to economically challenged families with K-12 students. Today, the program has grown to serve over 16,000 students – who with their families represent more than 28,000 Chattanooga area residents.
Finalists for the award were selected by a panel of 20 judges based on effectiveness, technical innovation, financial and community impact, individual efforts in driving broadband investment and true innovation in addressing the digital divide.
“Our continuing effort to keep Chattanooga on the cutting edge continues to evolve with the support and vision of our community’s leadership who work closely with us to explore the frontier of how we can best use fiber broadband technology to enhance quality of life in our community,” said EPB President and CEO David Wade. “We deeply appreciate Questex’s Fierce Telecom’s recognition which honors the contributions of so many stakeholders, EPB team members and advocates.”
The U.S. Broadband Awards announced winners from 14 categories, recognizing excellence a competitive group of organizations, people and programs working to connecting the country through broadband services. In the Best Municipal Connectivity Program, EPB was selected among a group of four finalists which also Consolidated Communications and Maine Connectivity Authority, Montgomery County, Md. and Pulse Fiber Internet.
The U.S. Broadband Awards were hosted on Nov. 16 during the U.S. Broadband Summit.