No. Chattanooga has a slight competitive advantage because they needed the network in place for running a smart grid anyway, so it made sense to just roll out f

No. Chattanooga has a slight competitive advantage because they needed the network in place for running a smart grid anyway, so it made sense to just roll out fiber at the same time as they rolled out electric lines, and become an ISP. Of course, I say that tongue in cheek, because there was no real competition in the area; all the big ISP players were indicating they had no plans to fully cover Chattanooga any time soon (they did, of course, immediately start lobbying against EPB). The incumbent ISPs, on the other hand, have (well, had) state mandated protection against non-profit municipal ISPs, -and- had a huge amount of governmental funding to roll out broadband initially (using the 90s definition) giving them, effectively, a huge leg up against any would be competitors.