- Despite eyeing other opportunities, fiber vendors haven’t given up on BEAD
- Big fiber operators will probably reapply and snag areas from small ISPs that drop out
- Fiber onshoring is also paying off amid tariff uncertainty
Fiber has officially taken the backseat now that the federal government rewrote the rules to the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. But the changes don’t mean much to the equipment vendors that have already moved onto greener pastures.
“The delays in the program all but forced them to focus on other opportunities in the meantime,” Dell’Oro Group VP Jeff Heynen told Fierce.
Indeed, the rural broadband hype has simmered down for vendors like Adtran, Corning and CommScope, who are instead chasing gains in lucrative areas like long-haul fiber and data center connectivity.
With BEAD deployments delayed until 2026 or beyond, vendors have even more reason to keep at those side hustles. “There is going to be a percentage of applicants in each state that don’t re-apply, because of the time and costs associated,” Heynen said.
That said, fiber vendors likely won’t lose out with their larger operator customers. Providers with the resources to reapply for BEAD will do so, he added, and will likely pick up broadband serviceable locations (BSLs) from the smaller ISPs that drop out.
Vendors still have hope for BEAD
It’s too soon to tell how the BEAD revamp will impact fiber’s total addressable market compared to fixed wireless access (FWA) and low earth orbit (LEO) satellite. Still, vendors remain optimistic that the program will work out with fiber in the mix.
States reopening their application processes are “giving a leg up to previously selected providers—many of them fiber-based—who have already done the planning and financial legwork,” said Bob Bartz, CHR Solutions VP of Engineering Services, in a statement provided to Fierce. CHR provides engineering, managed IT and other services to operators.
A Corning spokesperson said it is “committed” to working with service providers to ensure “a successful roll-out and implementation of the BEAD program as we connect the unconnected.”
“We continue to expect strong adoption of our BABA-complaint FTTH solutions when government-funded deployments begin,” the spokesperson added.
Speaking of Build America, Buy America (BABA), the new BEAD notice made no mention of altering rules that require certain fiber components be produced in the U.S.
BABA applies to products like optical networking terminals (ONTs) and optical networking units (ONUs). Vendors in the last few years have poured money into onshoring their manufacturing stateside, which could be a silver lining in light of the current tariff turmoil.
“Given the on-again, off-again approach to tariffs, having some manufacturing here in the U.S. is probably a good hedge against any policy changes in the future,” Heynen concluded.