Chattanooga EPB is doing something that's eluded a number municipally-owned broadband service providers: it's beating its own subscription projections and is making a profit.
The service provider said that it now has 35,000 Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) customers, 9,000 more than its initial goal of 26,000 customers by the third year in operation.
"We're beating our projections on that," EPB Chief Financial Officer Greg Eaves said Friday in a Chattanooga Times Free Press article. "The fiber-optics business is actually pretty good."
In its third year, EPB's broadband division reported $57.3 million in revenue. EPB's financial success is an anomaly in an industry segment where similar municipal-based network providers in Chicago, Philadelphia and Marietta, Ga. have struggled.
Georgia, for one, is facing a major challenge as the state's legislators have proposed a bill to effectively curtail municipalities from developing new broadband businesses.
Although EPB will spend more capex through 2013 to support more customers interested in its service, Eaves believes if it continues to be profitable it could say off its debt by 2020, surpassing its initial target of 2027.
For more:
- Chattanooga Times Free Press has this article
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