NORFOLK - A Nebraska-based telecommunications company has begun the process of bringing fiber services to the City of Norfolk.

The Norfolk City Council approved a franchise agreement with ALLO Communications on Monday night, allowing the company to operate and maintain a cable television system in the City of Norfolk. ALLO President Brad Moline says now is the perfect time to provide fiber-optic communication services to northeast Nebraska.

"There's a lot of opportunity up in northeast Nebraska, that's an area that hasn't seen a lot of fiber to the premise," Moline said. "It looked like a great opportunity, and we're hopeful that everything works out and that we can end up building in Norfolk."

ALLO was formed in Imperial in 2003, and has since expanded services to such cities as Alliance, Gering, Ogallala, and Scottsbluff. Moline says fiber telephone, internet, and television services will be the future due to the longevity and low costs that fiber can provide.

"Fiber will make the internet incredibly fast in the future, usually you don't have to change out the fiber, you just have to change out the electronics and it gets faster and faster," Moline said. "It's also rather cost efficient, so we can keep our prices relatively low."

The franchise agreement is the first step in the process that will bring ALLO into Norfolk, as Moline says there are still many logistics to work out before ALLO can fully announce its expansion into Madison County.

"We have to talk to the City utility department, the electric company, and other City officials about some new areas that are being developed or roads that are going to be closed in the near future," Moline said. "It's very complicated, and once we get all those things locked down it'll be time to go and then we'll do a big announcement, right now we're very likely coming to Norfolk, but we have a few things to work out first."