What's a gigabit good for anyway? EPB Fiber Optics has a new answer. The municipal broadband provider in Chattanooga, Tenn. launched a new display screen in the Chattanooga airport this week featuring live 4K/Ultra HD footage of the inside of the Tennessee Aquarium's alligator habitat. Figure 1: Screen capture of EPB's live 4K video feed of the Tennessee Aquarium's alligator habitat

Calling it the "first municipal demonstration of ultra-high definition live video in the country," EPB and its host city are touting the demo as a tourist attraction, a first look at what's available in downtown Chattanooga. It's also a way to draw attention to the unique high-speed broadband service EPB has to offer. After turning Chattanooga into one of the nation's first gigabit cities, EPB recently started promoting 10-Gig residential service with the help of Nokia's next-gen PON fiber technology. (See Chattanooga Vaults to 10-Gig With NG-PON.)

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) has its own plan to draw attention to its gigabit service. The telco has for months put out a steady stream of announcements covering new gigabit neighborhood deployments and milestones. In the latest press release, AT&T highlights its gigabit service in the Los Angeles metro area. According to the company, GigaPower is now available to tens of thousands of locations locally, and AT&T plans to make the Los Angeles metro one of its largest areas of gigabit service in the country.

It's worth noting that Google Fiber Inc. recently announced that it too will take its Gigabit service to LA; a service that now offers triple-play bundles with the recent introduction of Google Fiber Phone landline voice service. (See Google Eyes Chicago & LA for Fiber Expansion and Google Fiber Moves a Step Closer to Cable.)