Fiber availability expands despite the pandemic; Fiber gap remains wide for small buildings segment

BOSTON, MA, April 21, 2021 – New deployments of optical fiber to U.S. commercial buildings and data centers expanded in 2020 despite the pandemic, according to latest ENS @Fiber Plus research from Vertical Systems Group. Fiber lit buildings are strategic assets that enable competitive advantages such as more profitable delivery of services and applications requiring up to gigabit speeds.

Latest research analysis shows that fiber availability for commercial sites continues to vary widely based on size of building. The U.S. Fiber Lit Landscape chart below illustrates the two primary segments tracked for this research: Fiber 20+ (Buildings with twenty or more employees) and Fiber <20 (Buildings with fewer than 20 employees). For 2020, fiber availability extends to 14.1% of buildings in the Fiber <20 segment. In contrast, the availability of fiber is 69.2% for all buildings in the Fiber 20+ segment. Detailed ENS research available for Fiber 20+ shows how fiber penetration varies significantly across four medium/large building size segments: 20 – 50 employees, 51 – 100 employees, 101 – 250 employees and 251+ employees.

Fiber market leadership is measured by Vertical Systems Group with annual Fiber LEADERBOARD benchmarks based on lit building counts. Eleven retail and wholesale fiber providers attained a rank position on the 2020 U.S. Fiber Lit Buildings LEADERBOARD.

A fiber lit building is defined for this analysis 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.