Here’s how big the fiber shortage really is

The fiber shortage is already here. And with data center builds as well as public and private rural fiber deployments all ramping, there's bound to be a breaking point sooner or later. “It’s like the perfect storm,” said Ashley Travers, chair of the Fiber Broadband Association’s Supply Chain Working Group. “You’ve got the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment [BEAD] Program, you’ve got hyperscalers…with all these states coming out the gate at the same time, it’s going to present a challenge.” Travers said the shortage impacts both ribbon and loose tube fiber. From a splicer’s standpoint, ribbon cable is “much more user-friendly and much more organized” because multiple fibers are bonded together. That makes ribbon ideal for data center deployments and situations where space is limited. Estimated lead times for ribbon fiber are in the “60-plus weeks range” while loose tube fiber, primarily used for outdoor infrastructure and fiber-to-the-home deployment, is “well into the Q3 [2026] timeframe,” said Kate Fegley-Lummus, Marketing Project Manager and Partner Manager at fiber cable manufacturer Superior Essex.