The Fiber Broadband Association announced the completion of its 2022 Fiber Provider Survey that reported more fiber was deployed in 2022 than ever before as the industry advances its goal to close the digital equity gap. The research, performed by RVA LLC Market Research & Consulting (RVA), shows that fiber providers passed 7.9 million additional homes in the U.S. in 2022—the highest annual deployment ever, even with challenges in materials supply chain and labor availability.
According to the survey, there are now a total of 68 million fiber broadband passings in the U.S., up 13% over the past 12 months and up 27% over the past 24 months. Excluding homes with two or more fiber passings, 63 million unique homes have now been passed. Fiber has passed nearly half of primary homes and over 10% of second homes. Fiber broadband buildout continues to expand in Canada as well, according to the report, with about 66% of homes passed as 2022 comes to a close.
All this growth precedes the expected higher levels of annual fiber-to-the-home deployments anticipated for the next five years based on Federal funding programs such as BEAD, RDOF, ReConnect, and other programs focused on specific markets and demographics. RVA notes that although deployment expectations from individual companies are in constant flux based on many factors, many service providers have announced network builds exceeding the fiber footprint they have built to-date with private funding.
“High-quality broadband has become more important to consumers every year. Fiber broadband exceeds all other types of delivery in every single measurement of broadband quality, including speeds, uptime, latency, jitter, and power consumption,” said Gary Bolton, President and CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association. “For the consumer this has real-world impacts, like more productivity, better access to health care and education, more entrepreneurism, and the option of more rural living. For society, this means more sustainability and, ultimately, digital equity.”