AT&T Tops, Windstream Drops Off Fiber Building Rankings

AT&T retained the top spot for the fifth consecutive year on Vertical Systems Group’s (VSG) year-end U.S. Fiber-Lit Buildings Leaderboard.

These 11 retail and wholesale fiber providers that qualified had 15,000 or more on-net U.S. fiber-lit commercial buildings as of the end of 2020. Following AT&T in order are Verizon, Spectrum Enterprise, Lumen Technologies, Comcast, Cox, Crown Castle Fiber, Atlantic Broadband, Frontier Communications, Zayo and Altice USA.

Atlantic Broadband advanced to eighth position from 11th in the previous year. Windstream and Consolidated Communications dropped off the latest fiber-lit buildings leaderboard to the Challenge tier.

Rosemary Cochran is principal of Vertical Systems Group.

“The base of fiber-lit buildings in the U.S. expanded in 2020, although the pace of new installations was hampered by the pandemic,” she said. “Challenges for fiber providers ranged from impeded installations due to commercial building closures and business shutdowns to supply chain disruptions. As the economy rebounds in 2021, fiber providers have opportunities to monetize the millions of small and medium U.S. commercial buildings without fiber, as well as larger multitenant buildings with only a single fiber provider. However, it remains uncertain how changes in U.S. regulatory policies and federal funding could alter fiber investments and deployment plans in the next several years.”

In addition to Windstream and Consolidated, the Challenge tier includes Cincinnati Bell, Cleareon, Cogent, Conterra, DQE Communications, Everstream, FirstLight, IFN, Logix Fiber Networks, Segra, Unite Private Networks and Uniti Fiber. They qualified for the Challenge tier with between 2,000 and 14,999 U.S. fiber lit commercial buildings.

The Market Player tier includes all other fiber providers with fewer than 2,000 U.S. commercial fiber-lit buildings. It features such companies as Fusion Connect, GTT, Shentel Busiess, TPx Communications and Ziply Fiber.