{"id":795888,"date":"2019-05-16T18:16:01","date_gmt":"2019-05-17T00:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/breckenridges-fiber-network-to-have-exclusive-provider-initially\/"},"modified":"2019-05-16T18:16:01","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T00:16:01","slug":"breckenridges-fiber-network-to-have-exclusive-provider-initially","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/breckenridges-fiber-network-to-have-exclusive-provider-initially\/","title":{"rendered":"Breckenridge\u2019s fiber network to have exclusive provider initially"},"content":{"rendered":"
Breckenridge is about to enter a lease and network operation agreement with ALLO allowing the Nebraska-based company to operate the town\u2019s high-speed fiber network and be the exclusive service provider over it.<\/strong>
Eli Pace \/ epace@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And then there was one.<\/p>\n

Breckenridge is about to enter a lease and network operation agreement with ALLO Communications<\/a>, a Nebraska-based company that\u2019s poised to operate the town\u2019s soon-to-be-built fiber network and offer services as its lone provider.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because the lease agreement would give ALLO exclusive rights to offer internet and other services over the network once the town\u2019s fiber is up and running. The exclusivity of the agreement represents a significant change from original plans, when the network was envisioned as an \u201copen-access<\/a>\u201d system that would foster competition by allowing different service providers to all compete over the town\u2019s high-speed fiber lines.<\/p>\n

Recognizing that Breckenridge doesn\u2019t have the best internet services around, Councilman Gary Gallagher detailed some of the reasons for pursuing the project that involves millions in taxpayer money.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt first went on the town\u2019s radar several year ago,\u201d Gallagher said, as he\u2019s been talking to local business owners and residents more recently who are still unhappy with the services they\u2019ve been receiving.<\/p>\n

He said people aren\u2019t getting what they\u2019re paying for with upload and download speeds slower than promised. Plus, customer service has been shoddy and Breckenridge voters overwhelming supported a ballot measure in November 2016 that opted the town out of a state law preventing it from creating its own broadband networks. For Gallagher, that landslide vote showed residents\u2019 desire to take matters into their own hands with broadband services, as households are complaining of losing connectivity while businesses can\u2019t even run their credit card machines sometimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust looking around at the rest of the world, fiber is, I think, the information highway of the future,\u201d Gallagher said.<\/p>\n

He explained that communities across the U.S. and beyond are putting fiber in, not only to maintain current applications, but to prepare for connectivity demands of the future, be it smart cars or something else that involves transferring massive amounts of data. Regardless of what the future holds, Gallagher believes that fiber will play an integral role in it, but because Breckenridge is such a small market, there\u2019s no telling when fiber might make its way here without the town stepping in to make it happen.<\/p>\n

Gallagher likened the town\u2019s effort to lay fiber to other public infrastructure projects, like water and electric services or new roads and bridges.<\/p>\n

Explaining why the town reversed earlier plans to go with only one provider, Gallagher said town leaders decided having only one, at least initially, would give the network its best chance at success. He explained that the town interviewed \u201cquite a few groups\u201d before landing on ALLO, and during this process, it became evident that Breckenridge simply wasn\u2019t big enough for multiple companies to offer service on the town\u2019s network, at least not out of the gates.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe realized that if we came out of the box with two of these folks, that neither one of them would probably succeed and we would quite frankly fail delivering service \u2014 internet, cellphone, video and whatever \u2014 to our residents and our guests,\u201d Gallagher said. \u201cIt was more important for us to ensure somebody succeeded with this effort, given the fact that we\u2019re going to spend a lot of money putting in the infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because Century Link and Comcast are already offering services in Breckenridge, Gallagher and other town officials also said the exclusive agreement will promote local competition, not squash it.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a point of view of competition, which is something we\u2019ve always kept in the back of our minds, we think we can still create a competitive environment so that, even though ALLO is coming out of the box exclusive for a period of time, they are very much going to have to meet the market,\u201d Gallagher said.<\/p>\n

He further explained that for ALLO to be successful in Breckenridge, the company will have to offer packages that are at least competitive with Comcast and Century Link, if not better.<\/p>\n

Some prices have been kicked around, and assistant town manager Shannon Haynes said residents can expect a number of options at a variety of price points, not just for internet through ALLO but for cable TV and phone services, as well. Focusing on just the internet, Haynes said ALLO will offer a package featuring 300 megabyte per second upload and download speeds for about $60 a month. Additionally, a one gigabyte package would cost about $90 a month, and a basic package featuring 20 megabyte speeds would cost about $30 month.<\/p>\n

In October, Breckenridge Town Council approved spending $8 million on the first phase of construction for the \u201cbackbone\u201d of a high-speed fiber network and some connections to the town\u2019s businesses and residents. The budget allocation came after council supported a resolution in September expressing the town\u2019s intent to finance up to $25 million for the entire project.<\/p>\n

Asked about the long-term financial implications of the project, including network maintenance, both Haynes and Gallagher said they don\u2019t have a clear read on those figures yet. For Gallagher, it\u2019s not really about making money, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo answer your question, the town made the decision to move forward in laying the fiber infrastructure without really saying, \u2018What are the revenues? What are we going to earn from this?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cWe made the decision based upon, \u2018Is this something we should do even if we don\u2019t get a dollar of revenue back? Is this something that we really feel is important and is the future?\u2019 And that\u2019s the decision upon which the council said, \u2018yes.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He anticipates that, at some point, the fiber project will \u201cturn positive,\u201d and Breckenridge will begin collecting more money than what the town\u2019s spending to build the network. However, Gallagher was careful to say he doesn\u2019t know when that might happen, as it will depend on how many people sign up for service and how quickly they do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a bit of an unknown right now, but I do believe at some point in the future the lines will cross and go positive,\u201d Gallagher said. \u201cWe\u2019ve gone into this knowing it\u2019s not inexpensive, and it\u2019s going to be quite few years before the lines cross. I think that\u2019s the best way to say it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Per the agreement, ALLO would be the network operator and exclusive service provider. The agreement lays out an initial term of 10 years with a chance to renew the lease for two 10-year extensions. ALLO would also have the right to make first offer should the town decide to sell the network.<\/p>\n

A separate franchise agreement allowing ALLO to offer cable TV services is expected in town to come before Breckenridge Town Council on May 28. Meanwhile, the town started work on the fiber network this week and has a press conference about the project scheduled for June 3.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Breckenridge is about to enter a lease and network operation agreement with ALLO allowing the Nebraska-based company to operate the town\u2019s high-speed fiber network and be the exclusive service provider over it.Eli Pace \/ epace@summitdaily.com And then there was one. Breckenridge is about to enter a lease and network operation agreement with ALLO Communications, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-795888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 15:13:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}