More than 1.3 million or 24.7 percent of the 5-plus million commercial buildings in the U.S. are lit with optical fiber, according to latest research from Vertical Systems Group. For this analysis, a fiber lit building is defined to include multi-tenant and company-owned commercial sites plus data centers that have on-net optical fiber connectivity to a network provider’s infrastructure and active service termination equipment onsite.
Excluded from this analysis are standalone cell towers, small cells not located in fiber lit buildings, near net buildings, buildings classified as coiled at curb or coiled in building, HFC-connected buildings, carrier central offices, residential buildings, and private or dark fiber installations. The study showed that network diversity remains limited with nearly three-quarters of all U.S. fiber lit commercial buildings being serviced by a single fiber provider.
“Business fiber installations rebounded during 2021, as the U.S. began to recover from the effects of the pandemic,” said Rosemary Cochran, principal of Vertical Systems Group. “New fiber investments are being driven by multiple factors, including advancements in fiber optic technology, federal regulatory initiatives, and expanded federal funding for fiber infrastructure. Additionally, the fiber deployments supporting 5G and edge compute services are enabling build outs for nearby unlit commercial sites.”
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