Vertical Systems Group's latest Emerging Networks Service (ENS) research indicates that 59.6% of medium/large commercial buildings were fiber lit at the end of 2018, as compared to only 9.9% of small commercial buildings. The medium/large segment is defined to include commercial buildings with 20 or more employees, and the small buildings segment includes buildings with fewer than 20 employees.
Because of the disparities between the two segments, Vertical's research analyzes them independently as well as in aggregate for the total U.S. market. Fiber availability for the 20+ segment has been quantified by Vertical since 2004. The 20+ employees threshold maps directly to the addressable market for customers that purchase high-speed wireline network services. For the fiber-rich 20+ segment, ENS analysis includes a granular view of four building sizes (20-50, 51-100, 101-250, and 251+ employees).
Vertical's U.S. Fiber Lit Buildings LEADERBOARDs also cover the total U.S. market view, ranking the top retail and wholesale fiber providers based on share of lit buildings.