ALLO Exits Boulder Fiber Deal, Leaving City to Chart a New Course

Boulder, Colorado’s ambitious plan to bring citywide fiber to nearly every address by 2030 is back to square one after ALLO Communications informed city officials it will not proceed with the buildout.

In a July 10 letter, Andrew Vinton, ALLO’s general counsel, told city staff that “numerous developments” since the company’s 2024 announcement had rendered the project infeasible. ALLO pointed to three factors: rising labor and material costs across the fiber industry, increased competition among fiber providers in Boulder, and a shifting competitive landscape following AT&T’s acquisition of Lumen’s Quantum Fiber residential business. Quantum Fiber has since rolled out a $45-per-month “price for life” plan in the market.

“These unforeseen developments have created an environment in which ALLO cannot successfully complete the project,” Vinton wrote, adding that ALLO recognizes the decision means it will fail to meet certain obligations under its Fiber Lease Agreement with the city.

What ALLO Is Asking For

ALLO’s letter requested a mutual termination of the lease on three conditions: that the city keep the entirety of ALLO’s initial $1.5 million rental payment; that ALLO continue to locate, maintain, and repair the city’s fiber backbone at its own expense for up to 120 days while the two sides work out a transition plan; and that ALLO retain limited access to portions of the fiber ring to continue supporting projects in the Chautauqua area and for the Sundance Film Festival.

The Deal That’s Unraveling

ALLO entered a lease agreement with Boulder in 2025 to build out roughly 300 miles of “last mile” fiber connecting homes and businesses to the city’s existing fiber backbone. The agreement called for service to 80% of Boulder by 2028 and 97% by 2030, including all five of the city’s mobile home communities and some properties in the foothills. Construction had already begun in the Chautauqua neighborhood last September, tied to a separate project moving utility lines underground.

The backbone network ALLO was set to build on top of was completed by the city in 2024 at a cost of about $20 million, covering roughly 65 miles. That network already supports city operations — including Utilities, Parks and Recreation, and Boulder Fire-Rescue — and the Boulder Research and Administrative Network, which links the city to CU Boulder, NCAR, and Department of Commerce labs.

City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde said in a news release that the city is “working to identify a new partner through a new procurement process, while also exploring our legal options in this unfortunate contract situation.” Boulder had partnered with a private provider in part because increased competition — Boulder residents largely have access to just one wired provider, typically Comcast or Lumen — was expected to improve service and pricing citywide.

What Options Does Boulder Have Now?

With the ALLO deal off, the city has several paths to consider, each with tradeoffs shaped by Boulder’s own history with the issue.

Find a new private partner. This is the path the city has already signaled it will pursue, opening a new procurement process to find another internet service provider willing to build and operate last-mile connections over the existing backbone. The advantage is that it doesn’t require new capital investment from the city, but it carries the same risk that surfaced with ALLO: a private partner’s willingness to build can shift with market conditions.

Build and operate a municipal network. Boulder considered this route before choosing the ALLO partnership. A prior city analysis found that a municipal utility could require $10 million to $22 million a year in taxpayer subsidies, since projected revenue wouldn’t cover construction debt and operating costs. Voters gave the city legal authority to pursue this option back in 2014, when 83.5% approved a ballot measure exempting Boulder from a state law restricting municipal broadband; that state law was repealed altogether in 2023. Nearby Longmont operates NextLight, a municipal fiber utility often cited as a model, though it was built and financed differently, drawing on the city’s existing electric utility and public power infrastructure.

Pursue an open-access or hybrid model. The city could explore allowing multiple ISPs to offer service over its backbone rather than relying on a single exclusive provider, an approach some other communities have used to spread out buildout risk.

Enforce the existing agreement. The city says it’s reviewing its legal options under the Fiber Lease Agreement, which could include seeking remedies for ALLO’s failure to complete the buildout, separate from negotiating the terms of an exit.

For now, ALLO says it will continue maintaining the fiber backbone during the transition, and the two sides are expected to keep working together on the smaller Chautauqua and Sundance-related projects. The larger question of who builds the “last mile” to Boulder homes remains unresolved.

Sources: ALLO Communications letter to City of Boulder staff, July 10, 2026; Boulder Reporting Lab, “ALLO pulls out of Boulder’s citywide fiber project, forcing city to find new partner,” July 30, 2026.