Authored By david.morton

A report in a trade publication says the hardware needed for EPB to roll out a 10-gigabit-per-second Internet connection will be ready within a year.

According to LightReading, EPB’s director of fiber technology said the company is looking at next-generation optical network terminals capable of higher bandwidth.

“The equipment will be ready, very well tested, and I would say commercially available within a year,” Colman Keane said.

In a written statement, EPB said Keane’s comments about general industry trends were taken out of context. The company declined to discuss any potential plans for an “ultra-gig” Internet service.

Fiber optic cable is capable of transmitting data significantly faster than the 1-Gbps speed currently available to residential customers. Comcast announced this year it would offer a fiber service in the Chattanooga area reaching speeds up to 2 Gbps.

In a March interview, EPB President Harold DePriest said network hardware limits the speeds the company offers. EPB has tested equipment up to 40 Gbps in its lab, he said.

“We routinely have 10-gig and 40-gig equipment that we’re working with,” he said from his downtown office. “This building is tied to the other complex with two 10-gig circuits.”

UTC uses a 10 Gbps connection for its Global Environment for Network Innovations hardware, which connects academic researchers across the U.S. EPB supplies a fiber connection to it.