Fiber For Breakfast Week 48: How Fiber Shapes the Future of AI Usage

Fiber For Breakfast Week 48: How Fiber Shapes the Future of AI Usage 

This week’s Fiber for Breakfast featured Roger Entner, founder of Recon Analytics, who joined Gary Bolton to discuss how AI adoption is directly shaped by broadband technology—particularly fiber. Entner, a longtime industry researcher and analyst, explained how his team surveys 15,000 people every week to understand both mobile and home internet usage, with an additional 6,000 surveyed weekly on their AI habits. 

A key takeaway from Entner’s research is the clear connection between high-quality broadband and heavier, more sophisticated AI usage. “How often people are accessing AI really depends on the access technology that they’re using,” Entner explained. Daily AI use is reported by only about 10% of satellite or DSL users, compared with 28% on fixed wireless, 23% on cable, and a striking 45% on fiber. “People who use AI use fiber, and vice versa,” he said.  

Entner noted that not only frequency but also the types of AI tasks shift dramatically with better broadband. Fiber users rely on their desktops almost as much as their mobile devices —55% to 45%—whereas satellite and DSL users turn to mobile 80% to 90% of the time because their home connections can’t support more demanding workloads. The difference shows in the applications: fiber users are far more likely to use AI for generating images, analysis, and writing assistance while those on weaker networks tend to stick to web searches and social posts.  

Bolton connected those findings to what he sees in rural America, describing places where even basic webpages struggle to load. “If you’re in rural America, you are going to do minimal on the internet, because you can’t spend all day trying to get a website to come up,” he said. With his own 5-gig fiber service at home, he said the contrast is stark: “My ability to do whatever I want…to really understand what AI is, keeps increasing.” 

Entner emphasized that the relationship between fiber and AI isn’t just a coincidence, but a direct causal relationship. His team’s large, well-structured datasets allow them to identify natural control groups, and the patterns are consistent: people who use AI tend to choose fiber, and those with fiber connections are the ones able to take on heavier, more sophisticated AI tasks. These aren’t hypothetical assumptions, but behaviors observed at scale, week after week. 

Taken together, the findings paint a clear picture: the quality of a community’s broadband determines the quality of its participation in the AI economy. As policymakers continue debating what counts as adequate broadband, Entner’s data suggests that slower technologies don’t just limit connection speeds—they limit opportunity. 

Click here to watch the full interview.