U.S. Biz Fiber Penetration Reaches 46.2%

According to research from Vertical Systems Group, the U.S. "fiber gap" continued to narrow in 2015 as business fiber penetration in commercial buildings grew to 46.2%. The figure quantifies fiber-connected multi-tenant and company-owned buildings in the United States with 20 or more employees, which equates to more than 2 million individual business establishments. The fiber gap refers to the remaining "unlit" commercial buildings without optical fiber facilities that readily connect to business network services.

"Fiber penetration increased in 2015 as network operators targeted greenfield metro areas and mid-size multi-tenant buildings for new installations. Fiber access to network services is additionally being pre-built into nearly every new commercial building across the U.S.," said Rosemary Cochran, principal at Vertical Systems Group. "Business customers want ready accessibility to fiber-based services for the capacity and scalability necessary to future-proof their networks. Consequently, a top competitive differentiator for both wholesale and retail service providers is the geographic reach of their on-net fiber footprints."

Fiber is the most widely deployed access technology for delivery of Carrier Ethernet services in the United States. Fiber is also increasingly implemented to support higher speed hybrid VPNs, cloud and Internet connectivity, mobile traffic aggregation and emerging SDN-enabled dynamic network connectivity services (DNCS).