Fiber operator Allo to launch MVNO in Q1

Allo Communications, a fiber network operator serving parts of Nebraska, Colorado and Arizona, confirmed to Light Reading it plans to launch mobile services in the first quarter of 2024.

In doing so, the company joins a large and growing number of telecom providers across the US looking to entice customers with bundles of services stretching from wired Internet connections to mobile services to TV offerings.

"We will offer a multi-service discount for customers that take our Internet and add mobile," Tanna Hanna, Allo's director of marketing, said via email in response to questions. Hanna wasn't immediately able to provide details on Allo's mobile pricing plans.

Allo's mobile efforts stem from its membership in the National Content & Technology Cooperative (NCTC). The trade association recently cut deals with AT&T and Reach to enable its members to bundle mobile services with broadband. AT&T is on board as the MVNO, with Reach serving as the mobile virtual network enabler (MVNE). The NCTC has cast itself as the mobile virtual network aggregator (MVNA) in this construct, and has teased support for mobile services at $30 per month.

Hanna said Allo plans to sell its mobile services to residential, business and governmental customers.

However, Allo's device plans are still in a state of flux. Hanna said Allo intends to initially support customers' existing devices under a "bring your own device" scenario. She said the company is looking at ways to sell phones directly, but suggested that effort is still in the planning stages.

Such phone sales often rely on financing plans – which can be difficult for companies to set up financially – that allow customers to pay for their devices in monthly allotments over two or three years. And selling mobile phones can be difficult for some small companies because they require bulk purchasing deals with phone suppliers like Apple.

A stumbling rush into mobile

Founded in 2003, privately held Allo today operates 38 all-fiber markets across Nebraska, Colorado and Arizona. As noted by Telecompetitor, the company counts around 1,000 employees and sells a variety of active, passive and XGS-PON fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) networks to business, government and residential customers in those markets.

Allo's new strategy puts the company alongside T-Mobile, AT&T, Omnipoint and others in selling mobile services next to fiber services. However, each company is coming at the space from slightly different angles and using varied strategies. AT&T, for example, is in the midst of building its own extensive fiber network to complement its nationwide mobile services. T-Mobile, meanwhile, is teaming with third-party open access fiber network operators in order to test out the market for T-Mobile-branded fiber services that sit next to its nationwide mobile offerings.

But in the realm of convergence and bundling, it's cable companies like Charter Communications and Comcast that are leading the way. For example, Charter's Spectrum One bundle is helping to propel the company past Dish Network as the nation's biggest MVNO. Both Comcast and Charter are MVNOs on Verizon's mobile network and use mobile services to reinforce their cable Internet businesses.

But not every cable operator can claim similar success. For example, Altice USA has struggled to build out a mobile business based on its T-Mobile MVNO. And WideOpenWest (WOW) was among the first mid-sized US broadband operators to introduce mobile services when it soft-launched the offering in select markets in June 2022. But now, nearly 18 months later, it's increasingly evident that WOW has made little progress on the mobile front.