The Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) kicked off its annual Fiber Connect conference in Florida today with an opening session that framed fiber not merely as broadband infrastructure, but as the nervous system of an emerging AI-driven economy.
FBA President and CEO Gary Bolton opened Fiber Connect with a sweeping state-of-the-industry address, delivering what amounted to a manifesto for why fiber’s role is expanding far beyond homes passed and subscribers connected.
“We are entering a thinking economy,” Bolton told attendees. “Value is created by turning information into intelligence and acting on it instantly.”
On the deployment side, Bolton offered a string of milestones: The U.S. has now passed more than 100 million homes with fiber, including 11.8 million connected in 2025 alone — a record the industry expects to break again this year. There are now 1,561 active fiber providers in the country, he said, with 42 new entrants and 715 providers that doubled their footprint in the past six months. Regional providers, electric co-ops, and municipal providers together accounted for 40% of fiber deployment last year.
Bolton also pointed to the AI investment wave reshaping fiber’s demand picture, noting that Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta collectively invest roughly $370 billion annually in AI infrastructure. Supporting that buildout, he said, will require three times more hyperscaler data center capacity, twice as many fiber route miles, and three times the total fiber deployed today.
Challenges remain, Bolton told the Fiber Connect crowd, including power availability for data centers, the need for fiber buildout to remain inclusive, and workforce shortages, with more than 200,000 additional workers needed in fiber deployment alone.
Following Bolton’s address, FBA Board Chairwoman Ashley Brown presented the 2026 FBA Chairwoman’s Award to OEC Fiber and its CEO David Goodspeed, recognizing the Oklahoma co-op’s rapid network buildout and community-focused approach.
Bolton then presented the FBA’s Industry Impact Award to Shirley Bloomfield, outgoing CEO of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, in recognition of her 15-year tenure and partnership with the FBA. Bloomfield closed with a brief, heartfelt message to Fiber Connect attendees: “The work that you do matters. Connecting Americans, connecting the economy, connecting the future — know that the connectivity you bring changes lives.”
