Why the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce is Irked About ‘Iron Man 3′

Mark Deming

Having grossed over $700 million since opening internationally on April 24 and making its American debut May 3, it seems like everyone loves "Iron Man 3."

Everyone except the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, that is.

Some folks in Chattanooga, Tennessee are less than happy about how the city is portrayed in the movie, particularly their Internet service. Chattanooga wants the world to know you can get a blazing fast connection for your computer in their fair city.

The hubbub is over a scene in "Iron Man 3" where Tony Stark is stranded in Chattanooga and needs to get online to do some maintenance, only to find the city's Internet service is frustratingly slow. However, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce have taken exception to this, and sent out a press release declaring the city's Internet speed is second to none, and they have the specs to prove it.

"If Iron Man had visited the real Chattanooga, he would have been saving the world with the help of the first American city to offer gig-a-second Internet speeds (1,000 megabits per second), which Chattanooga has made available to every home and business across a 600 square mile service area since 2010," the statement read.

After singing the praises of Chattanooga's fiber optic data network, the statement goes on to read, "Geeks and techies are flocking to Chattanooga to experiment with the city’s 'Living Lab.' This summer, entrepreneurs and startups from across the globe are vying for five spots in the city’s accelerator challenge GIGTANK, the only world’s accelerator program that focuses on the utilization of a living fiber network."

So whatever problems Iron Man would have had in Chattanooga, a bad web connection would certainly not have been one of them. Hopefully some of those geeks and techies can set "Iron Man 3"'s creative team straight if they ever come back to Tennessee … though chances are good those geeks would happily forgive everyone in exchange for some "IM3" swag autographed by Robert Downey Jr.