With Greeley City Council approval, a new internet service provider is coming to town. Here’s what that means for you.

Photo by John Schnobrich via Unsplash.

By Kelly Ragan

Greeley City Council unanimously voted to approve a broadband Internet franchise to Allo Communications Tuesday.

The franchise will let Allo install fiber and rights of way.

“The city believes this agreement will bring about competition in the community for the service and also help connect areas of our community that severely lack a stable broadband connection,” said Raymond Lee, deputy city manager at the meeting Tuesday. 

Increased competition could, in theory, encourage other internet providers (think CenturyLink and Comcast) to step up their game – something a 2020 report showed Greeley residents wanted.  

In March 2020, Lori Sherwood, the director of broadband development for VantagePoint, was contracted to help the city hash out what options were available and what to do next with broadband. 

According to a report by The Greeley Tribune, Sherwood presented these findings:

• Overall, 85% of households use the internet at home, but 15% is not connected. She called it a relatively high “gap number.” 

• Internet service satisfaction is below average in Greeley, with speed and pricing being top concerns. 

• The majority of residents think highly of the City of Greeley and would prefer the city be a new provider, though the margin was narrow

The city-appointed broadband task force recommended the city bring municipal broadband to Greeley, but ultimately city council decided against it. At the time, council cited concerns over costs and liabilities. 

What is Allo Communications? 

Allo Communications is a Nebraska-based telecommunications company, founded in 2003, that offers fiber internet, fiber TV and fiber phone services to residents, businesses, and governments.

Brad Moline, president of Allo Communications, said at the meeting that Allo is excited to become a competitor and job creator in the Greeley area. 

“We’ll bring a lot of jobs, probably in excess of 75 permanent jobs, during our peak it will probably be substantially higher than that,” Moline said.  

As it stands, it already has a franchise established in Fort Morgan and Breckenridge. 

“We saw the economic impact a fiber network had in our communities and focused on helping rural towns meet businesses’ and residents’ technology needs,” according to a blog post on its website. “With the recent COVID-19 pandemic impact, our fiberhoods have shown us that a fast, reliable connection is essential for working and learning from home. However, much of the Midwest is left without sufficient means to manage this ‘new normal.’”

Other northern Colorado communities

While Greeley is *not* working to implement municipally controlled or operated broadband – and has in fact rejected the idea of a public-private partnership with Allo – other communities along the Front Range are moving that direction and have even brought Allo into the mix. 

According to the Denver Post, in 2009, Fort Morgan voted to opt out of a state law – passed in 2005 – that forbid municipalities from offering internet services, according to the post. The law, Senate Bill 152, acted to restrict local governments from using (read: wasting) taxpayer dollars to build big, expensive broadband networks. Companies such as Comcast supported the bill. 

In 2017, Fort Morgan approved a partnership with Allo to provide folks with internet and TV service after the city finished building out its own fiber backbone. 

According to the Post, the city of Longmont also opted out of the SB-152 in 2011. 

The City of Fort Collins launched Fort Collins Connexion in 2019 which was initiated by a 2017 ballot measure, as a locally managed, municipally controlled broadband service. 

According to a report by the Colorado Sun, Allo came to Breckenridge as an internet service provider after Project Thor, a municipally controlled broadband system aiming to provide more reliable and affordable internet service to rural communities in western Colorado was established by several local municipalities.