Nearly 200 million fiber miles will be needed to meet capacity projections by 2030 and avoid a bandwidth shortage

Zayo, a leading global communications infrastructure provider, today released The Zayo Bandwidth Report: Key Trends Driving the Bandwidth Boom, analyzing bandwidth consumption trends from 2020 to 2024 across customers, network decision-makers, and third-party industry research. The research revealed that bandwidth demand is growing rapidly across hyperscalers, carriers, and enterprises, and a significant increase in fiber is needed to meet projected capacity strains. Specifically, Zayo’s third-party research found that a projected 120 million long-haul fiber miles and 70 million metro fiber miles will be needed to meet capacity projections by 2030. Without this additional infrastructure, a bandwidth shortage is imminent.

“Increased connectivity demands from data centers, hyperscalers, and carriers are on track to create bandwidth scarcity in the near future. If you’re not getting the bandwidth you need today, in 10 years it may be too late,” explains Bill Long, Chief Product & Strategy Officer at Zayo. “Failure to address connectivity lags could lead to operational bottlenecks, resource shortages, and long-term competitive disadvantage.”

Key Findings:

• Bandwidth’s growth rate is astronomical: Between 2023-2024, metro dark fiber purchasing increased 268%. In the same timeframe, long-haul dark fiber purchasing increased 52.6%. According to Zayo’s third-party research, metro fiber demand and long-haul fiber demand are expected to continue to grow by an average of ~20% and ~35%, respectively, year-over-year over the next five years.
• Fueled by AI and digital transformation, large bandwidth use cases are consuming more than ever: Between 2020-2024, hyperscalers and carriers made 91.2% of all metro dark fiber purchases and 66.8% of all wavelength deals exceeding 1TB of capacity with Zayo. New AI use cases are spurring a record number of large-scale wavelength and fiber purchases, predominantly from hyperscalers, software, and tech companies looking to gain a competitive advantage through technology.
• Emerging data center markets are gaining momentum: Demand for long-haul routes and metro wavelength connectivity skyrocketed in non-traditional, emerging data center hubs like Memphis and Salt Lake City, increasing by 4,300% and 348.28% year-over-year, respectively, from 2023 to 2024. These cities offer ideal geospatial optimization between fiber and power, ensuring enough fiber can be built in locations with more affordable energy sources to meet demand.
• Vertical markets see record demand growth: The manufacturing sector experienced some of the largest growth in bandwidth demand as a result of digital acceleration and rapid reindustrialization across North America. Between 2020 and 2024, the sector saw a 364.34% growth in wavelength capacity purchased, surging from 1.88 TB to 8.71 TB. The software and technology industry also saw a massive 450% increase in wavelength capacity purchased, from 9.6 TB to 52.12 TB, as this sector continues to demand more bandwidth to handle growing data demands, power cloud services, and ensure seamless performance for cutting-edge applications.
• Increased access to remote areas is causing additional demand: Partnerships between terrestrial giants and satellite providers aim to eliminate dead zones, boost emergency communication, and enhance network resilience, but they also drive up bandwidth demands. Seamless integration between terrestrial networks and satellites enables IoT adoption in remote areas, further increasing resource pressure.

What This Means

As widespread growth in bandwidth consumption continues and is projected to increase, it’s clear that innovative organizations need more bandwidth to enable the usage of AI and emerging technologies. But building the fiber networks needed to deliver this bandwidth at scale is complex, costly, and risky without the right expertise in place.

As the only company to build long-haul fiber networks at scale in the last decade, Zayo is actively investing to deliver the critical fiber infrastructure to avert a potential bandwidth gap. In January, the company rolled out plans to build more than 5,000 long-haul fiber route miles to meet the growing demands of AI workloads. Zayo recently advanced construction on the first of this long-haul fiber commitment with a new 385-mile fiber route between Chicago and Columbus. In addition, in March, the company announced plans to acquire Crown Castle’s fiber solutions business, which will add 100,000+ metro route miles to Zayo’s network to support enterprise and AI-driven bandwidth growth.

To view the full report and learn how Zayo helps customers meet escalating digital demands while future-proofing their infrastructure, visit: https://www.zayo.com/info/the-zayo-bandwidth-report/

About Zayo

For more than 17 years, Zayo has empowered some of the world’s largest and most innovative companies to connect what’s next for their business. The Zayo group of companies connects 400 global markets with future-ready networks that span over 19 million fiber miles and 147,000 route miles. Zayo’s tailored connectivity solutions and managed services enable carriers, cloud providers, data centers, schools, and enterprises to deliver exceptional experiences, from core to cloud to edge. Discover how Zayo connects what’s next at www.zayo.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

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