Chattanooga Focused on Offline Community Organizing Around Its Gigabit Network

Chattanooga, TN, is home to a world-class fiber-to-the-home broadband network. Owned and operated by the local electrical utility, EPB, the network offers some of the highest-speed and reasonably-priced broadband service in the world, and policy leaders in Washington have noticed. This summer, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler wrote a blog post praising the network and highlighting why communities should have the right to decide whether they want to invest in such infrastructure.

Last month I traveled to Chattanooga to attend an event organized by Next Century Cities. As a researcher who has studied these issues for many years, I was excited to visit Chattanooga and see their world class network first hand. The network has come a long way since EPB first announced plans to invest over $300 million (financed in part through bonds and in part through a federal grant) to build a fiber optic network that would support both smart grid power technology and offer gigabit broadband service to residents. Chattanooga has accomplished a significant amount since 2009 by completing construction of an advanced, locally-owned network.

But speaking with Chattanoogans gave me a useful perspective to the way locals view the network. In conversation after conversation, Chattanoogans spoke about how building a gigabit network was just the beginning, not the end of this community project. Completing the construction of the network marked the start of another, more important phase for Chattanooga: engaging and collaborating with the public to ensure the network was digitally inclusive and actually serving the local community at large. I met Chattanoogans working to use the municipal network to build community and advance digital outcomes in three local sectors: the school system, the public library, and the startup business community.

Chattanooga’s local network provides its school system with access to high-bandwidth connectivity. EPB’s speeds already meet bandwidth targets for schools, which were recommended by the FCC during recent reforms to E-rate, the program that subsidizes school and library connectivity. But network capacity alone does not change educational outcomes. Teachers must understand and feel comfortable with new technologies to incorporate them into their classrooms effectively. Recognizing that most teachers will need some kind of additional professional development to integrate new tools into their lesson plans, organizers in Chattanooga are working to empower and collaborate with teachers directly. Local non-profits have helped support a technology-focused “Professional Learning Community”, where teachers come together to share their experiences and skills about how to use technology to advance student learning. Chattanoogans also developed a “Teacherpreneur Incubator,” a project that encourages teachers to think like entrepreneurs and ‘pitch’ projects that incorporate technology into the classroom, with winning ideas getting funding from the Benwood Foundation to be developed further with an eye toward wider implementation.

The emphasis on building an inclusive, tech-centered community continues at the local library. Today, libraries are increasingly important to discussion of digital access and digital inclusion. They host public computing centers that offer library patrons a free way to access the Internet. The library in Chattanooga took this idea and expanded it, dedicating an entire floor to hosting a public ‘maker space’, which reflects an increasingly common trend at libraries across the nation. At Chattanooga Library’s 4th floor, patrons can get access to advanced technologies, like 3-D printers, video and audio editing software, and 4K video displays. The goal is to have a collaborative space that fosters hands-on digital learning, with dedicated library staff available to provide guidance and support. It can also serve as a resource to local nonprofits and startup companies, students, and anyone else who wants to use — but who otherwise could not get access to — such resources.

Photo Credit: Mary Barnett, Chattanooga Public Library

Finally, local groups are focusing on building social relationships to support the local business community. Chattanooga’s fiber network has spurred economic development, with the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce noting that the network has led to over 90 businesses being founded or relocated to the area. FCC Chairman Wheeler’s blog post also notes that the network played a role in Amazon and Volkswagen both selecting Chattanooga as the site to build new distribution and manufacturing centers.

Chattanooga is also using its network to cultivate a tech startup community. But the local startup incubator CO.LAB realized that offering affordable access to gigabit broadband speeds is not enough to support new businesses. They make an active effort to partner new entrepreneurs with more experienced mentor entrepreneurs, people who can offer guidance and advice to new businesses. It is this kind of social support combined with access to advanced broadband technology that CO.LAB sees as being central to fostering economic development.

Chattanooga is rightly recognized as a national leader for its locally-owned broadband network. But on the ground in Chattanooga, locals recognize how much work is left to be done, and that local officials and the public now have an unprecedented opportunity to collaborate and innovate together during the next phase. Residents are now focused on the social aspect of technology: the need to build social relationships to empower communities, groups like teachers, library patrons, and small businesses, so that they understand, use, and get the most out of the municipal network. This focus on community engagement and collaboration echoes characteristics that OTI has emphasized over the years. Focusing on communities and supporting social relationships within them are necessary components critical for successful tech outcomes. And they are particularly important in areas like digital adoption, where efforts to get members of a community online are more effective when housed within an organization that is known and trusted locally, and community wireless networks, where a model using digital stewards emphasizes self-governance and sustainability. Commitment to social engagement and inclusion, as seen in Chattanooga and elsewhere, helps ensure that technology not only reaches its full potential to serve the community, but also that the community has the ability to give input and co-design the network going forward.