Chattanooga, Tennessee: a Bible Belt city with a population of 170,000, ish. Winner of the All-America City Award in 1962. The birthplace of the tow truck and Moon Pies (that's Wagon Wheels to Brits). The Glenn Miller Orchestra even made a record in honor of the place.

Speaking of records, the city is now offering 10Gbps broadband to homes.

The city's municipal power company, EPB, said that the fiber network it installed for residents five years ago is now able to offer the ultra-fast internet service for those willing to pay the $299 monthly fee. There are no installation or cancellation fees. The EPB service already offers residents and businesses 1Gbps and 3Gbps pipes.

While the service is available to home users, EPB and Chattanooga hope the 10Gbps broadband will help attract more companies to set up shop in town.

"Chattanooga's 10 Gig fiber optic network is a world-class platform for innovation," said EPB president and CEO Harold DePriest.

"In recent years, the need for faster Internet speeds has increased rapidly. Chattanooga is the perfect place for companies to enhance their productivity today and test the applications everyone in the country will want tomorrow."

Chattanooga made headlines when it announced its intent to offer residents a city-funded broadband network, citing a lack of adequate broadband coverage, speeds, and prices from ISPs in the Southeast Tennessee region.

The move, which ran afoul of a Tennessee state law prohibiting governments from competing directly with private companies, touched off a debate between the state and the FCC over municipally-funded broadband networks and efforts to bar them.

Traditional large carriers such as Comcast and AT&T claim they face competition from one another and regional ISPs in most parts of the US and provide competitive prices and speeds.

The rise of Google Fiber, however, has shown that when a new player enters the market in a US city, AT&T and Comcast always seem to find the motivation to improve speeds and lower prices for citizens. ®