What were fiber’s 2025 gains? Will we see 2026 acceleration?

In 2025, the fiber industry set another record for growth, hitting 11.8 million homes passed according to the latest Fiber Broadband Association research conducted by RVA Market Research & Consulting. Total broadband passings have reached nearly 100 million homes in the United States when you include homes with more than one passing. Taking out the multiple-passings, there are 84.6 million unique addresses that have fiber. But there’s still plenty of upward growth in the years ahead. Consider that Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program funding, created to connect the unserved and underserved across the nation, just started to be released in the last quarter of 2025. Fiber is the necessary and vital infrastructure for households, communities, and businesses for decades to come, so there’s plenty of greenfield construction that will take place over the next three years as federal funding with local, state, and private contributions starts closing the digital divide. 

[Gary Bolton is President and CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association]