Both fiber broadband and business services are key drivers for revenue and growth with CDG clients. Industry data from Vertical Systems Group puts these two important services into context, highlighting which larger carriers have the most fiber lit buildings.

The top four providers on Vertical System Group’s 2019 Fiber Lit Buildings Leaderboard report — AT&T, Verizon, Spectrum Enterprise and CenturyLink – each have more than 100,000 on-net fiber lit buildings. In all, 13 retail and wholesale providers qualified for the Leaderboard by serving 10,000 or more on-net commercial buildings in the U.S.

Beyond the top four, the Leaderboard consists of Comcast, Cox, Crown Castle Fiber, Frontier, Zayo, Altice USA, Atlantic Broadband, Windstream and Consolidated Communications.

AT&T held the top spot for the fourth consecutive year, while smaller carriers Atlantic Broadband and Consolidated Communications made their first appearances on the Leaderboard. They were on the Challenge Tier last year. Windstream fell one spot – from 11 to 12 — between 2018 and 2019.

Fiber Lit Buildings Report

“The number of on-net fiber lit commercial buildings exceeded one million in 2019 as network providers concentrated on U.S. footprint expansion.” Rosemary Cochran, VSG principal said in a press release. “New fiber deployments are providing dedicated access to network services, connecting 5G small cells, enabling low latency for edge computing, and supporting the massive bandwidth surge for webscale companies.”

Twelve companies qualified for the 2019 Challenge Tier, which includes the providers with 2,000 to 9,999 fiber-lit commercial buildings. In alphabetical order, the tier consists of Cincinnati Bell, Cleareon, Cogent, Conterra, DQE Communications, Everstream, FirstLight, IFN, Logix Fiber Networks, Segra, Unite Private Networks, and Uniti Fiber.

The 2019 Market Players tier—those with fewer than 2,000 fiber-lit buildings—includes more than 200 providers. These include (in alphabetical order) Armstrong, C Spire, Centracom, CTS Telecom, Douglas Fast Net, EnTouch Business, ExteNet Systems, Fatbeam, FiberLight, Fusion, Google Fiber, GTT, Hunter Communications, LS Networks, Mediacom Business, MetroNet Business, Midco Business, Pilot Fiber, PS Lightwave, Shentel Business, Silver Star Telecom, Syringa, TDS Telecom, TPX Communications, U.S. Signal, Veracit and WOW!Business.

VSG reported changes to the Challenge Tier and Market Players tier. Conterra, DQE Communications and Everstream moved up from the Market Player Tier to the Challenge Tier. GTT and FiberLight went in the other direction by dropping into the Market Player tier from Challenge Tier.