In 2025, the fiber sector set a new growth record, with 11.8 million homes passed according to RVA Market Research & Consulting. When you include multiple passes, broadband passings totalled close to 100 million homes in the United States; after removing those duplications, 84.6 million unique addresses now have fiber.
With NTIA BEAD funding beginning to flow in the final quarter of 2025, fiber remains the essential backbone for households, communities, and businesses for decades. Federal, state, and private contributions are expected to drive substantial greenfield construction over the next three years as the digital divide narrows.
RVA’s analysis shows the share of homes receiving second or third fiber passings rising steadily—1.5% in 2015 to 16.1% in 2025—indicating that competition and broader fiber adoption will continue to drive higher take rates in most markets. This growth is expected to persist as incumbents, new entrants, and potential cable migration toward fiber converge in more places.
Take rates for fiber-to-the-home stand at about 40% on a passings basis, and roughly 46.5% based on unique passings per RVA. In markets with two fiber providers, the cumulative take rate can reach around 61%, underscoring the value of multi-provider competition. At a national level, fiber now passes more than 60% of U.S. households, putting the industry on track toward the 90% target set by the Fiber Broadband Association by the decade’s end.
Policy and corporate moves also loom large. The 100% bonus depreciation available starting in 2026 is expected to accelerate fiber deployments, with RVA and other analysts estimating 5% to 15% higher FTTH capital expenditures in the near term as freed cash flows are directed to network expansion. AT&T has already announced plans to deploy to an additional 1 million locations in 2026, while Verizon projects as much as $2 billion in tax savings this year to fund network growth.
Going into 2026, the industry anticipates continued fiber adoption across the broadband landscape. The cable sector is on a path to migrate to fiber for competitive and reliability reasons, and fixed wireless customers may move to fiber for higher symmetrical speeds where RF capacity becomes a bottleneck. RF congestion, spectrum constraints, and, in some cases, satellite limitations add urgency to accelerate fiber expansion.
Beyond deployment, demand for data and the growth of AI are driving the case for faster, symmetrical connections. Average U.S. household data use has surged from about 100 GB per month in 2015 to nearly 700 GB per month in 2025. AI-enabled data centers and edge connections are expected to push fiber deeper into networks and closer to end users, enabling zero-touch networks and higher-priority services where needed. The author predicts 2026 will be the fiber industry’s biggest year yet, with more homes connected for the first time, more choices for fiber providers, and more fiber deployed nationwide to power AI-driven productivity.
