wiredinUSA February 2020

Image: FBA

North America’s fiber boost

The Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) and the market research firm RVA LLC have released a new study showing record growth in the North American fiber broadband industry. Launching the report, Michael Render, president of RVA LLC, and a researcher for FBA, highlighted that fiber deployment reached “record highs” during 2019, now passing 46.5 million homes and connecting 20.5 million. The figure represents a 16 per cent increase in homes passed by fiber since 2018.

400,000 fiber routes deployed in the last year, driven by new deployments to homes, upgrades by cable operators, and deployments to small cell sites. Canada’s own 2019 milestone was reaching 50 percent of all homes passed by fiber. “2019 was a banner year for fiber broadband,” said Lisa R Youngers, president and CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association. “Fiber networks now support everything from 5G to smart cities to the Internet of Things. I’m thrilled that our association can demonstrate the progress that wehavemade. In 2020wewill continue the work to connect the unconnected and accelerate our fiber future.”

All-fiber deployments to customer end- points are also at record levels, with over

25

wiredInUSA - February 2020