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Allo Communications announced Wednesday where it will provide ultra high-speed service this year, the first of a four-year expansion that will reach all of Lincoln.

The first-year areas will cover more than 30,000 homes and thousands of businesses, the company announced at a Face the Chamber luncheon on Wednesday.

One section covers downtown and the Haymarket (First Street to 25th Street, and the UNL campus on the north to H Street on the south).

The second section is a rectangle in east Lincoln (40th to 98th streets between Holdrege Street on the north and the city limits on the south).

Allo, a Nebraska-based company recently acquired by Nelnet, will provide Internet, television and telephone service to all parts of the city within four years, in competition with Time Warner and Windstream.

"We apologize to the people we are not going to cover right away. But we will be there soon," Allo President Brad Moline said at Wednesday's announcement. 

The company will offer a minimum Internet speed of 100 megabits per second, along with the ultrafast 1-gigabit option.

With 100-megabit service one can watch five movies, search the Web and answer emails at the same time.

Allo will connect downtown Lincoln first, then begin work on the east Lincoln area, Moline said. 

Construction crews will work in smaller areas of about 1,000 homes and businesses at a time. And as it adds fiber, the company will be behind every home and business and in city rights-of-way, said Moline.  

"Bear with us. We will leave the property as we found it. But it is a huge undertaking," he said. 

The company recently ordered 5 million feet of conduit, 30 vans and 10 trucks, and splice trailers.

Allo might not get to the entire eastern section in 2016, Moline said, but "we will make every effort to do so."

And if the eastern section is finished this year, then it may not take the entire four years to provide the 1-gigabit option to the entire city, he said.  

Allo is working with Lincoln-based Olsson Associates engineering and design firm to finalize the construction schedule.

Allo, which has provided 1-gigabit service to smaller Nebraska towns, has a broadband franchise agreement with the city of Lincoln in exchange for putting its fiber in the city's conduit system. 

Residents and businesses within the 2016 construction area can select fiber services by visiting or calling 402-480-6550 for residential or 402-480-6500 for businesses.