Beyond BEAD, Fiber Industry Reflects Upon Use Cases at Fiber Connect 2026

A broadband provider and two journalists attending Fiber Connect 2026 here recapped the lessons they had learned at the annual trade show of the fiber industry. Attendees shifted attention from federal deployment funding to fiber's expanding role in telehealth, precision agriculture, quantum networks and data center buildouts. The conference’s expo floor had a shorter schedule than in previous years due to World Cup scheduling conflicts. But the event still drew thousands of operators, vendors, and policy advocates wrestling with a transformed funding landscape after recent changes to the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program forced some providers to recalibrate their expansion strategies.