ALLO Fiber overbuilds Cable One in Joplin, Missouri

The city of Joplin (MO), has taken broadband competitiveness into its own hands and has wooed ALLO Fiber to build a fiber network in the city that will compete against the long-time incumbent Cable One. This is bad news for Cable One. But it could also spell bad news for cable providers all over the country. For several decades cable operators have been careful to respect each other’s footprints, rather than competing against each other in many markets. And they’ve always fought hard against municipal broadband efforts, arguing that taxpayer dollars should not be used to compete with their networks, which were built with private investments. But that way of approaching broadband may be coming to an end. This deal between Joplin and ALLO is not by definition a municipal network. The network will be funded, built and operated entirely by ALLO. The city is involved because it was fed up with what it considered sub-par internet for its residents, and it put out a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a fiber company to enter the market.