Majority of U.S. Homes Have Fiber Access, Fiber Broadband Association Says
Rural Americans' access to fiber is already increasing swiftly and will accelerate due to BEAD spending, said Meg Corriveau, manager-strategy and analytics at Cartesian, which conducted the Fiber Broadband Association's annual fiber deployment study, released Thursday. The fiber industry is "at an encouraging point," with record levels of fiber deployment going on despite economic headwinds, Corriveau said. Deployments "aren't going to slow down anytime soon."
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According to the study, 56.5% of U.S. households have access to fiber, up from 50.5% in the 2023 study and 38% in 2020. Rural areas lag behind cities and suburbs but had the largest fiber coverage gains in 2024. Thirty-seven percent of rural locations were served by fiber in 2024, vs. 64% of urban locations, up from 31% rural and 62% urban, respectively, in 2023. BEAD will largely target rural communities and help further shrink that gap, Corriveau said.
The study said that as of 2024, 7.8% of locations in the U.S. had access to two or more fiber providers, up from 6% in 2023.
The median cost of fiber deployment is $18.25 per foot for underground installation and $6.55 per foot for aerial installation, according to the study. Labor makes up the majority of costs for both, Corriveau said. The West and Northeast tend to have the highest reported cost ranges for installation, due in large part to often-rockier terrain. The Midwest deployments are cheapest.