Previewing FBA’s Agenda for 2025 with Chair Ariane Schaffer

Last month, the Fiber Broadband Association held its Premier Members Meeting in Florida to elect board members and set its goals and agenda for 2025. Newly elected Board Chair Ariane Schaffer, who also serves as GFiber’s Head of Federal & State Policy, discussed the association’s strengths and the goals for the upcoming year that emerged from the Premier Meeting as a part of the January 1, 2025, Fiber For Breakfast podcast.  

“A lot of folks ran [for the FBA Board] this year,” said Schaffer. “I think it means we have an incredibly healthy industry. Every part of the industry wants to be in leadership, and I think it really shows that FBA is the place that everyone knows is advocating and putting out research around what it means to be deploying fiber in 2025 and for the next five to 10 years.” 

Schaffer encouraged everyone who couldn’t join the board this year to participate in one of the 18 committees that the FBA operates, including the newly constituted AI and Emerging Tech working group. There are currently over 1,000 people from FBA’s member companies that contribute to the various working groups. 

“We really need that leadership, not just on the board but in every part of the organization,” said Schaffer. “We’re not talking about folks that show up for a monthly call where they just listen in. These are folks taking things back to their businesses. It’s really incredible.”  

For 2025, Schaffer sees three main areas of concentration for FBA. Continuing to build and strengthen the fiber community is the first “bucket,” leveraging the success of face-to-face engagement taking place at FBA Regional Fiber Connect and the national Fiber Connect events and the continued publication of committee research. “When people come to Fiber Broadband Association meetings, they are linking with people with other businesses,” Schaffer said. “Companies are planning their customer meetings around these highly attended and valuable gatherings. We continue to be the place where not only advocacy, but business is really happening.”  

Second, the markets have spoken, and fiber is the clear decision many service providers are using their own capital resources as well as leveraging private equity investment. “Even the cable folks are talking about converting to fiber,” Schaffer said. “FBA has done significant, well-sourced research demonstrating the benefits of fiber. We really want to continue to strategically partner with folks all across not only our industry, but the broadband industry in general.” 

The third focus area will be expanding FBA’s network of relationships and memberships into new areas, moving beyond its traditional boundaries into new sectors. “If you provide fiber service to the home, you should be a member of FBA, no question,” said Schaffer. “So much of today’s networks are built on fiber or have significant fiber investments through their network. I’m thinking about utility and power companies, data centers, or these content delivery networks. Are these folks that can benefit from joining our community? I’d argue yes. 

“I also don’t want to forget about the importance of the in-home product manufacturers who are building the products that run on these fiber networks, right? The in-home experience for customers is critical. We want to enable customers to take full advantage of all of the products and services to enhance their in-home experience.” 

To learn more about FBA’s plans for 2025, including its upcoming policy efforts on Capitol Hill, the diversified strength of FBA’s membership, and many more insights, tune into this especially insightful New Year’s Fiber for Breakfast.