The Fiber Broadband Association recently announced the results of a RVA LLC Market Research and Consulting (RVA) Fiber Deployment survey. The survey found that fiber broadband deployments hit a new annual record of 10.3 million homes in the U.S. passed in 2024. When including homes with more than one passing, there is a total of 88.1 million homes passed with fiber in the United States, with growth anticipated for the next five years.
“The fiber broadband industry is experiencing record-breaking success, and there is a lot more runway left to go,” said Mike Render, Founder and CEO, RVA. “The addressable FTTH market remaining is still very large assuming about 70 million first passings left (including household growth) and an estimated 80 million more second or third FTTH passings to go.”
“The 2024 survey data suggests that fiber now passes 56.5% of U.S. households. Fiber take-rates increased slightly in 2024, growing to an average of over 45% based on unique passings. Service providers are now achieving their first 20% take rate in a much faster period and reaching higher take rates over time.”
The report also noted that the fiber industry’s inventory issues from Covid-19 stockpiling are now resolved with the average months of inventory estimates slowly decreasing. RVA’s research also found that fiber’s main competitor, HFC cable, had a net loss of 33% in areas where fiber was available. RVA forecasts that cable will see the shift of customers to fiber and that cable providers will replace legacy systems with fiber.
“In the midst of the current broadband boom, it is encouraging to see the preference for fiber growing,” said Deborah Kish, Vice President of Research and Workforce Development at the Fiber Broadband Association. “Fiber provides the most reliable, high-quality broadband experience compared to alternative technologies, making fiber the clear choice to connect communities and close the digital divide.”
It is anticipated that strong investments in fiber will be ongoing across private equity, mergers and acquisitions, capex reinvestment, and public funds. Predictions from 2025-2029 state that there could be more than a 50% increase in homes passed and over a 100% increase in route miles to support homes passed. RVA also forecasts that other growing markets such as data centers, middle mile, energy, quantum, etc. could keep the fiber industry strong for quite some time after the maturity of the FTTH boom.
