Study: Data Centers Will Require 214M More Fiber Miles By 2029
Increase in fiber miles will require permitting relief, other actions, study says.
WASHINGTON, August 1, 2025 – According to a study commissioned by the Fiber Broadband Association and published Thursday, U.S. data centers alone will require an additional 214 million fiber miles by 2029.
The paper noted that most AI experts have predicted that cumulative hyperscale data capacity will increase by 3x in the next few years alone.
Since each route mile of fiber contains hundreds if not thousands of fiber cables, the authors estimated that the U.S. will need to add 213.3 million more fiber miles by 2029, more than doubling its current amount from 159.6 million fiber miles to 372.9 million miles, just to keep up with the growth in new data centers.
The authors predicted that 573 new data centers would be built in the next three years, and that most of those centers would require fiber connections to at least three different Internet connection points.
Using a Poisson random distribution analysis, the authors estimated that each new center would require 135 route miles of fiber, for a total of 77,355 new route miles of fiber across the U.S..
“The need for fast, secure, low-latency connections between hyperscale data centers has accelerated with the birth of AI. Given the laws of physics, fiber remains the superior medium of interconnection cable used between data centers and users,” Deborah Kish, vice president of research and workforce development for FBA, said.
“This research reveals the scale of the challenge and the urgent need for new investment, policy modernization, and smarter infrastructure planning to keep pace with AI innovation,” Kish said.
In addition to connecting new data centers to the internet, fiber lines will also be needed to upgrade and build new long-haul routes between the centers. The authors estimated that this would take an additional 15,000 route miles of fiber nationwide. This means that in just three years, the U.S. will have to nearly double its number of route miles of fiber from 95,000 to 187,355.
“Meeting this need will be far from easy,” the authors wrote. “For existing routes, success will take sufficient capital, permitting relief, construction resources, etc. For new routes, success will take finding new rights-of-way, sufficient capital, permitting relief, and construction assets.”
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