2023 in review: Some US fiber builds slow down

In a trend that started emerging in late 2022, the pace of some fiber buildouts in the US slowed down this year.

The year kicked off with AT&T resetting its fiber build strategy, leading to rumblings in the industry that AT&T's fiber pace could indicate a broader slowdown.

Indeed, that's what came to pass. By early February, multiple service providers had also lowered their 2023 fiber targets, including Altice USA, Consolidated Communications, Frontier Communications and Lumen Technologies.

By March, the financial analysts at Evercore were warning that the pace of fiber construction activity for 2023 would be "consistent with 2022 levels, and perhaps even a little slower." According to their analysis, US fiber providers overall had reduced their fiber build plans for 2023 to 6.5 million, down from 9.4 million.

Myriad factors

Industry experts pointed to multiple factors slowing the pace of fiber builds, from inflation, to sluggish home sales, to labor costs and availability, to pole access and permitting challenges. Analysts have also started to fret about fiber's return on investment.

And here at the end of 2023, some signs suggest the slowdown could continue next year.

Slowdowns aside, it was still a solid year for fiber growth overall. According to research by RVA and the Fiber Broadband Association, 2023 saw the North American fiber industry add over 9 million new homes passed, setting a new record.

Have a romp through some of this year's Light Reading stories covering the companies that reduced their fiber buildout targets, and the broader economic trends causing the slowdown: