As EPB builds out the first commercial quantum network in America, Chattanooga is taking more steps this week to develop the new technology to propel advanced computing, cyber security and artificial intelligence.

A new partnership of government, business and nonprofit groups supporting quantum technology development in the city launched the Chattanooga Quantum Collaborative on Tuesday to help leverage resources and promote EPB’s quantum network built on the utility’s fiber optics system.

The collaborative has set a goal over the next decade of realizing $5 billion in economic benefits and training a quantum-ready workforce of 5,000 people in the Chattanooga area.

The new nonprofit collaborative will be headed by Charlie Brock, the former CEO of LaunchTN and The Company Lab, and former U.S. Sen. Bob Corker will chair the group’s board of directors.

“We hope to be a collaborator, a convener and connector to help take the infrastructure that EPB has built and work to commercialize this unique quantum network we have here,” Brock said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “We want to get out in the market and help bring in, start up and scale up businesses that are in the quantum supply chain which could benefit by the quantum network here. I’m still very involved in the startup

world and the early-stage venture capital world, so I hope to talk with many entrepreneurs, investors and growing businesses that would benefit from our quantum network.”

Because quantum technologies offer the capability to encrypt and share far more data than the digitalbased computers used today, quantum has the potential to dramatically boost computer calculations, cybersecurity and communications.

The business consulting firm McKinsey recently estimated investors in 2022 poured $2.35 billion into quantum technology startups, which include companies in quantum computing, communications and sensing. By 2035, McKinsey projects the business value of quantum computing for the automotive, chemical, financial services and life sciences industries could total more than $1.3 trillion.

BUILDING THE NETWORK

EPB is Chattanooga’s municipal utility that delivers energy and connectivity services to the city and the surrounding area. In 2010, the company completed a 100% fiber optic network accessible to all customers as the basis for launching America’s first communitywide gigspeed internet. A study by University of Tennessee at Chattanooga economist Bento Lobo estimates EPB’s high-speed internet — billed as the world’s fastest — helped spur nearly $2.7 billion of economic benefits for Chattanooga in its first decade from increased business investments, improved efficiency and energy cost savings.

In 2022, EPB used its fiber optic network to establish the nation’s first commercially available quantum network — EPB Quantum Network powered by Qubitekk — with a goal of increasing commercialization alongside local job creation efforts.

Brock said the potential from EPB’s quantum network — also the first in the nation of its type — is potentially even greater than EPB’s gig-speed internet. Brock said Chattanooga will be a place where new discoveries and technologies can be tested in real-world situations on the quantum network.

Corker, who initially pushed a community based high-speed internet network as Chattanooga mayor two decades ago, said he hopes to promote the quantum network that grew out of EPB’s fiber optics and internet system.

“I’m glad to help facilitate our community’s effort to capitalize on EPB’s outstanding infrastructure to take advantage of coming opportunities in quantum technology,”

Corker said in a statement Tuesday.

On its website, the new collaborative touts Chattanooga as “uniquely poised to create a safer, healthier and more prosperous world.”

“The future is Quantum,” according to the new website. “Chattanooga will be ready.”

Brock said Chattanooga’s proximity and established relationship with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and its quantum research projects also will boost Chattanooga’s role in the emerging quantum field.

UTC TO CREATE QUANTUM CENTER

Closer to home, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is moving to help train the workforce for the new technology and to use quantum technology to encrypt data and find ways to protect America’s energy grid. The fiscal 2024 federal budget signed Saturday by President Joe Biden includes a $3.5 million grant from the Department of Energy to help UTC start a Quantum Center connected to the EPB quantum network in Chattanooga.

“This launch will result in an enduring program of excellence in quantum information science and engineering with a strong focus on applications in energy systems,” said U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Chattanooga, the chair of the energy and water subcommittee for the House Appropriations Committee.

In his community project funding letter outlining the project, Fleischmann said the federal grant will create a quantum network user lab for the development of educational material for outreach to K-12 students in the region and will help establish a quantum technology certificate for workers in the area.

Fleischmann also helped secure another $4 million of federal funds for EPB to help build its commercial quantum network to a broader part of EPB’s service territory. EPB is currently in the third year of a $70 million upgrade to its fiber optic network to provide 25 gigabit internet service and in 2022 EPB invested $4.3 million to make that network usable for quantum technology transfers. EPB requested the federal assistance “to support network operations, quantum network equipment modernization, quantum research projects, applications development and workforce development programs.”

COLLABORATIVE PROGRAMS

The new quantum collaborative will work to promote the emerging technology with a number of programs, including organizing the celebration next month of World Quantum Day with more than 4,000 learning activities planned across the community.

Brock said the collaborative also will lead efforts to engage quantum experts at The Company Lab’s second annual CoMobility Summit at UTC in May. The collaborative is recruiting national experts in quantum technology to speak with regional professionals about how quantum has the potential to affect various business sectors.

EPB President David Wade said the new quantum network continues to attract business and research interest across the country and he hopes the collaborative will help coordinate the marketing, training, staffing and business development spurred by the quantum network infrastructure at EPB.

“We can expand opportunities for everyone in our community to participate in meaningful ways to make Chattanooga a global destination for quantum developers and business innovation,” Wade said in a statement Tuesday.