Viewpoints
AI data center construction, quantum technology leaps, and long-awaited BEAD funding is making 2026 a momentous year for fiber.
By: Gary Bolton, President and CEO, Fiber Broadband Association (FBA)
Every year, fiber plays an increasingly important role in our society, but 2026 is shaping up to be particularly momentous for three key reasons: AI data center construction is driving both fiber densification and advanced tech adoption, quantum technology is making steady progress towards deployment in real-world settings, and long-awaited BEAD funding is moving out of proposals and into actual spending.
In the top-level policy discussions about applications and services, little has been said about the need for reliable, easily scalable broadband with fiber at the core of the telecommunications infrastructure. More fiber is essential to ensure that AI and other emerging technologies have the required infrastructure in place to deliver the capacity, scale, latency, and reach across the network from core to edge, so everyone can access and benefit from the latest innovations from precision agriculture to telemedicine.
Recent research from RVA, LLC, indicates that 2.3 times more fiber is needed in the U.S. to support AI performance, scalability, and security. This increase is necessary to meet the growing demands of AI applications on hyperscale data centers, which are expected to see at least a 3x increase in capacity by 2029.
Planning needs to keep pace with AI innovation
The research highlights the critical need for new investment, policy modernization, and smarter infrastructure planning to keep pace with AI innovation.
“Deploying new short interconnections for each new hyperscale data center, upgrades to existing long-haul interconnections to increase capacity, and entirely new long-haul interconnection routes will be required to meet AI’s latency and bandwidth requirements. ” -Gary Bolton, President & CEO, FBA
Fiber demand and securing access has made big waves within the industry and ecosystem. Corning and Meta announced a deal on January 27 valued at up to $6 billion through 2030 for fiber optic cables to support Meta’s multi-year, multi-billion-dollar AI data center construction. Fiber will be manufactured at Corning’s Hickory, N.C., factory, a facility that is being expanded to meet the increasing demand for fiber, boosting U.S. manufacturing and jobs. When completed, the Hickory facility will be the largest fiber-optic cable plant in the world.
Exploring the relationship between fiber and AI
The Fiber Broadband Association will be conducting a deep dive into the relationship between fiber, AI, and quantum technologies with The AI and Emerging Technology Infrastructure Summit on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, at the Fiber Connect 2026 conference. For the first time, Fiber Connect is bringing together leading AI innovators, quantum savants, and technology futurists to discuss how the unlimited capacity of fiber broadband unlocks limitless possibilities for innovation and discovery.
The summit kicks off with a keynote by renowned futurist and theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku. Author of several New York Times bestselling books, his most recent “Quantum Supremacy: How the Quantum Computer Revolution Will Change Everything” explores how quantum computing may supercharge AI, solve some of humanity’s biggest problems like global warming, world hunger, and incurable diseases. Following his presentation, Dr. Kaku will be joined by our presenting sponsor, IonQ, for a Fireside Chat to dive into the evolving infrastructure needs of AI, quantum, and our increasing capacity and power-intensive world.
Other AI heavyweights
Other data center and AI heavyweights will be presenting as well, delivering practical guidance across the technology stack, with representatives from Oracle, Meta, and Lumen sharing their knowledge and viewpoints.
Fiber is not just about connecting servers, racks, and buildings, but moving down to the chip level for speed, power, and cooling benefits. James Kelly, VP of Market Intelligence and Innovation for the Open Compute Project Foundation, will lead a panel of OCP members to discuss the practical realities and future direction of revolutionizing data movement—from photonic integrated circuits (PICs) to scale-up AI pods, to scale-out AI factories and scale-across AI multi-data center clusters.
This panel aims to cover technologies like recent breakthroughs in silicon photonics, the rise of linear and co-packaged optics (CPO), and advanced optical interconnects such as optical circuit switching (OCS), emphasizing their technical and market impacts on overcoming bottlenecks in data transfer for AI training and inference, as well as their role in enabling next-generation AI accelerators and memory hierarchies.
Other sessions include “Ready Player One: Capacity and Energy Requirements to Scale AI” that explores the intersection of fiber and power to efficiently support AI, edge computing, and data centers; and “To Infinity and Beyond: AI, Quantum, and Telecom,” a panel examining how fiber enables AI, quantum networking, and advanced digital services.
BEAD’s current and future opportunities
BEAD deployment funding is finally starting to flow from NTIA to the state level for disbursement, kicking off four years of construction across the country to connect the unconnected and uplift underserved communities. Fiber Connect’s pre-conference workshops include the annual “FBA Fiber Starter Toolkit” track that presents the full-spectrum of fiber network construction from planning, design, and permits through construction. The accompanying “Marketing & Customer Experience” pre-conference track delves into the marketing strategies for driving customer subscriber growth and securing customer loyalty to reduce churn.
On the show floor of Fiber Connect 2026, there will be the opportunity to meet with the full ecosystem of companies involved in building and operating fiber networks, including software firms, cable companies, construction firms, hardware vendors, and service providers.
At least $21 billion of BEAD money is estimated to be available for non-deployment activities, according to a recent estimate posted on LinkedIn by Wes Robinson, Directory of Regulatory Affairs at Eastern Telephone Cooperative. Options for investing BEAD non-deployment funding include middle-mile construction to drive down the cost of rural access and increase AI connectivity; upgrading permitting systems at state and local levels; and building more internet exchange points (IXes) to lower latency and provide on-ramps for edge computing resources. Breakout sessions throughout Fiber Connect include panel discussions examining many topics applicable to BEAD non-deployment funding.
Also on the show floor will be the FBA’s second annual OpTIC Path™ Rodeo, a fiber technician skills and knowledge competition that showcases the people and teams lighting up households and businesses every day, along with the association’s OpTIC Path fiber technician training curriculum. The winner of the Rodeo will win a $1,000 cash prize and bragging rights for being one of the best technicians in the industry.
Unlimited opportunities
Finally, Fiber Connect tracks and sessions will continue to explore what people and companies are and will do with the wealth of fiber broadband. We have sessions on AI, middle-mile, precision agriculture, streaming, gaming, telehealth, and data center innovations, presenting a banquet of topics for service providers to learn about. I cannot emphasize enough that service providers not only need to know how to successfully build, operate, and maintain their networks, but also understand what their users are doing with broadband today and what they plan to do with it in the future.
Understanding where people and businesses are going means you can adjust and expand your services as needed to meet their needs as they continue to grow and innovate with the power of fiber. One of the events I’m looking forward to at Fiber Connect is our live Fiber for Breakfast session with Starfront Observatories on Tuesday, May 19. Located in rural Texas under pristine nighttime skies, Starfront hosts hundreds of remote-controlled telescopes, enabling astronomers from around the world to view the universe.
Starfront is a unique business that only happens with the power of fiber. AI, quantum technologies, and BEAD are all fiber opportunities that are going to change our lives in the years ahead and I’m hoping you’ll join us at Fiber Connect 2026 in Orlando, Florida, from May 17-20, 2026, to explore today’s opportunities and tomorrow’s unlimited future.
