As the revision of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) plan severely impacts the fiber industry,

 industry players are turning their attention to opportunities in connecting AI data centers. At a recent Fiber 

Broadband Association webinar, industry experts highlighted that meeting the needs of AI data centers will become 

a new growth engine for the fiber market.

Moderator David Norris opened the webinar by stating, "Today's topic focuses on addressing the underestimated 

demand for fiber capacity between AI data centers." Michael Render, CEO of RVA Market Research and Consulting,

 then noted that while new AI data centers face major challenges such as land, energy, water, and semiconductor 

supply, "the bottleneck of fiber infrastructure is under-discussed."

In addition to the need for more fiber connections between data centers, existing long-haul routes also need to be

expanded.

RVA estimates that there are currently 95,000 independent long-haul route miles in the United States, totaling 159 

million fiber miles (including the miles of multiple strands of fiber). However, as demand grows due to AI, RVA predicts 

that the number of lines will need to double to 187,000 in the next five years, and the fiber mileage will need to

 increase 2.3 times, reaching 373 million fiber miles by 2029.