- Despite BEAD delays, private fiber deployments are surging, said Fiber Broadband Association's Gary Bolton
- Fiber is essential for emerging technologies like AI and quantum computing, he said
- Over 5,000 attendees gathered at Fiber Connect 2025
FIBER CONNECT, NASHVILLE – BEAD may be on the back burner, but the same can’t be said for private sector fiber deployments. Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) chief Gary Bolton kicked off this year’s Fiber Connect show with resounding optimism, noting the industry is “nothing if not resilient.”
Despite BEAD rollouts taking longer than expected amid the new administration, “our industry has once again stepped up with hundreds of millions invested in creating U.S.-based manufacturing, millions of homes connected and plans to connect tens of millions more,” he said in his opening keynote.
Indeed, operators have stepped on the gas for their fiber strategies. AT&T, which plans to reach 60 million fiber locations by 2030, “will reach 30 million homes passed ahead of schedule” this month, said Bolton.
He went on to praise efforts from other operators like Frontier, which is on track to pass 10 million fiber homes by the end of 2025 (and up to 40 million once merged with Verizon), T-Mobile (12-15 million by 2030) as well as regional players Altice, Consolidated, Ziply and more.
But the road to fiber-for-all is still rife with challenges due to pending BEAD changes. It’s still unclear how much of the program’s funding will shift from fiber to wireless and satellite technologies.
Policymakers' bias toward wireless and satellite instead of fiber would hurt communities' ability to participate in the digital economy, Bolton said. But "those communities don't need to worry," he added. "We will reach them."
The Fiber Connect show floor is packed. More than 5,000 people are attending, Bolton said.
Fiber enables AI and quantum
It’s not a telecom conference without some mention of AI, and Bolton stressed how relevant fiber is for data center buildouts and the AI backbone.
“All of that only works when it’s connected with fiber,” he said.
Quantum computing is another emerging use case for fiber. We weren’t too surprised to hear that, given Tennessee is home to the country’s first commercial quantum network.
Bolton pointed out how scientists recently sent the first quantum messages across a record 158 miles over ordinary computers and standard fiber cables.
This was notably done without cryogenic cooling, which is “a huge deal” as quantum repeaters have typically required “super cooling to slow down the qubits so that we could control the entanglement.”
Catch up on all the news from Fiber Connect 2025 here.