Upward of 60 percent of U.S. households now have access to fiber broadband, long considered the gold standard for Internet infrastructure.
Much of this buildout — 11 percent growth in 2025 alone — has been the work of the private sector, according to the 2025 Fiber Deployment Cost Annual Report from the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA), which arrived earlier this month.
“We expect record deployment to continue,” Gary Bolton, FBA president and CEO, said in an email. “But the industry will be bumping up against labor and near-term supply chain challenges.”
Also in the near term, projects funded by the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program will begin to move forward. The program is a $42.5 billion component of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The Trump administration last year revamped key components of the Biden-era program, downplaying or eliminating certain provisions like the preference for fiber infrastructure, and the kinds of equity programs that would help to bring broadband service into the homes of often economically disadvantaged residents.
The availability of a workforce to deploy broadband projects — fiber or otherwise — is a concern among industry officials.
“The bigger challenge for deployment is the availability of workforce and challenges permitting at the federal, state and local levels,” Bolton said, noting, on the upside, some of the COVID-19-era supply chain shortages have been worked through.
Labor accounts for 64 percent of the cost of fiber infrastructure projects when the technology is installed above ground. When installed below ground, labor costs rise to 72 percent of the costs, according to the FBA report.
Fiber has relatively robust deployment across suburban and urban areas — 62 percent and 70 percent serviceable by fiber, respectively — but it tends to lag in rural areas, largely due to the increased cost per location. As of June 2025, only 45 percent of rural locations were serviceable with fiber — 12.8 million homes and businesses.
Industry watchers would like to see BEAD’s non-deployment funds, which is the portion of the funding a state does apply to actual projects, used for broadband-adjacent purposes like workforce development.
“The canceling of the digital equity funds — the $2.75 billion that was paired with the BEAD money — is a real shame,” Caroline Treschitta, senior government affairs manager for the National Skills Coalition, said during a panel discussion Jan. 15 for Broadband Breakfast, a news and policy organization focused on broadband technology. “It was a great opportunity for states to develop their digital equity skills, a skilled workforce, hand-in-hand with the broadband deployment funds.”
Some of the most significant workforce gaps are in skilled trades like fiber-optic technicians and construction workers, said Treschitta, adding some of the reasons for the gaps are because a number of these jobs are located in fairly rural areas, underscoring the need to establish partnerships with rural community colleges, she said, noting it’s important that some of the BEAD funding be used for workforce training.
“We advocate for high-quality skills training programs so that people can have access to a better life, a good job, with a family and a sustaining wage,” Treschitta said.
In a rural state like Oregon, more than 92 percent of residents have access to high-speed broadband, according to the site BroadbandNow. However, only about 43 percent of residents have access to fiber.
“BEAD will absolutely play an integral role in expanding fiber in Oregon,” Jackie Wirz, executive director of Link Oregon, said in an email. Link Oregon is a nonprofit providing high-speed broadband to other state nonprofits and public-sector members.
She “would love to see the non-deployment funds used as originally articulated in the BEAD program,” Wirz said, noting this would include increasing broadband adoption, improving cybersecurity and network resiliency.
"BEAD is no longer just broadband,” Wirz said Jan. 16 during a Link Oregon webinar, Voices from the Fiber Frontier. Broadband, she said, is increasingly framed “along cybersecurity and resilience, AI readiness and data security.”
And the technology to deliver that broadband should be fiber, Bolton said.
“Fiber is fundamental to our nation’s AI future,” he said. “So expect that every home and business will eventually be connected with fiber. As fiber gets closer and closer to hard-to-reach rural communities … the cost to reach these homes will eventually be within reach of the private sector.”
