Fiber For Breakfast Week 51: Why Fiber Continues to Win

Fiber For Breakfast Week 51: Why Fiber Continues to Win 

This week on Fiber for Breakfast, Gary was joined by Mike Render, President of RVA, for the 2025 annual deployment update, examining why fiber broadband continues to expand at a historic pace and what is driving its next phase of growth. 

Render shared that 2025 has already set a new annual record for fiber expansion, with 11.8 million homes marketed through Q3, surpassing previous years. The growth brings the total number of unique fiber homes marketed to 84.6 million, an 11% year-over-year increase. When second and third passings are included, total U.S. fiber broadband passings now approach 100 million homes. 

Adoption is keeping pace with deployment. Average fiber take rates continue to rise even amid heavy deployment reaching 46.5% for unique passings and 40% when redundant passings are included. Fiber now passes more than 60% of U.S. households. Render also noted a major market shift: non-Tier 1 providers now account for 40% of cumulative fiber deployments, up from just 12% in 2007, highlighting the growing role of regional and competitive providers in driving fiber expansion.  

Render noted that consumer reliance on the internet increases every year, with household data usage continuing to climb. That growing dependence, he explained, naturally favors fiber. In fact, nearly 60% of consumers say fiber is the best broadband option if costs were equal, regardless of what service they currently use.  

One of the clearest shifts in the data is upload demand. Render explained that upload speeds are now increasing faster than download speeds, driven largely by AI and data-intensive applications. RVA research shows AI-driven use cases could increase upload needs by two to ten times over the next five to ten years. “AI is all about data, and data has to be uploaded,” Render said, pointing to applications like high-definition video diagnostics, security cameras, and financial or health data analysis that rely on fast, symmetrical connections.  

While some argue that ultra-fast speeds aren’t necessary, Render reframed the conversation around productivity. Small delays during interactive tasks add up quickly. “It’s all about productivity,” he explained. “If time is important to you, and it is to most people, a gigabit or more is important today.”  

Render also highlighted financial tailwinds supporting continued fiber investment, including expanded bonus depreciation that is encouraging capital spending, alongside ongoing public investment supporting large rural builds. Even in competitive markets, fiber continues to win share, delivering higher take rates and lower churn wherever it is available. 

Looking ahead, Render outlined growth opportunities beyond fiber-to-the-home, including fiber-to-the-tower, fiber-to-the-room, fiber sensing, and data center connectivity; areas increasingly shaped by AI’s demand for capacity, redundancy, and low latency.  

Render closed by emphasizing fiber’s broader impact. Fiber broadband is not only foundational to economic growth and innovation, but to improving lives and communities nationwide. “There’s no industry more important or exciting,” he said, “than fiber broadband.”  

Click here to watch the full interview. 

Click here to see the full presentation deck.