Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of fiber lit buildings in the U.S. expanded in 2020 allowing many businesses to gain a competitive advantage by delivering services and utilizing applications at gigabit speeds.
The 2020 U.S. Fiber Lit Buildings LEADERBOARD compiled by the Vertical Systems Group showed that network providers continued their U.S. footprint expansion of on-net fiber lit commercial buildings even with the challenges of the coronavirus crisis.
“The base of fiber lit buildings in the U.S. expanded in 2020, although the pace of new installations was hampered by the pandemic. Challenges for fiber providers ranged from impeded installations due to commercial building closures and business shutdowns to supply chain disruptions,” said Rosemary Cochran, principal of Vertical Systems Group. “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 multi-tenant buildings with only a single fiber provider.”
What is the Definition of a Fiber Lit Building?
A fiber lit building, often just called a “lit building”, is a building where an Internet service provider (ISP) or Telecom carrier has already installed fiber facilities inside the building that is directly connected to their network.
These fiber lit buildings feature large bandwidth connections that provide high-speed Internet and data services delivered over fiber optical cables.
Vertical Systems Group defines fiber lit buildings as buildings that are “multi-tenant and company-owned commercial sites plus data centers that have on-net optical fiber connectivity to a network provider’s infrastructure and active service termination equipment onsite.”
The Bigger the Building, The Better Chance Its Fiber Lit
When it comes to the odds that your building is a fiber lit building it depends on the size.
Vertical Systems Group 2020 U.S. fiber research analysis for five building sizes shows that fiber availability varies significantly based on the number of employees:
- For buildings with 20+ employee segments, the fiber lit availability was 69.2 percent.
- For buildings with less than 20 employees, the fiber lit availability was 14.1 percent.
There are now more than one million fiber lit buildings in the U.S. with plenty of room for growth in small-and-medium sized buildings.
Bandwidth Benefits of a Fiber Lit Building
In the post-pandemic hybrid workforce model, with employees splitting time between offices and work from home, while taking advantage of cloud-based applications, the bandwidth capacity of fiber lit buildings will be needed for businesses to remain competitive.
Fiber lit buildings can support nearly any bandwidth with 100 Gig service possible in some areas.
What can you use all this bandwidth for in a fiber lit building? Mission-critical applications is the biggest reason to have access to the bandwidth, but other applications include:
- Data Backup
- File Sharing
- Video
- VOIP
- VPN Access
- Web Hosting
Why Life in a Fiber Lit Building is Easier
If you are moving your business into a new building, life can be easier if it is a fiber lit building.
Advantages of being a tenant in a fiber lit building include:
- Getting Fiber Services is a Snap: Since fiber is already brought into the building, getting your business up and running with fiber is a breeze. Some ISPs even extend their fiber connections to every floor in multi-tenant buildings, making it even easier to connect your fiber service.
- Save Costs on Fiber Services: ISPs “lighting” up a building with fiber, incur most of their costs in the initial construction phase. Once the building is fiber-ready, adding new customers does not require new construction and sometimes little installation. Tenants, especially in large multi-tenant fiber lit buildings, can take advantage of discounts on fiber service.
“If you are looking for high levels of bandwidth at reasonable prices, the place you need to be is in a “lit” building,” writes John Shepler in ethernetbuildings.com.
PS Lightwave: 1,100+ Fiber Lit Buildings in Houston Area
For those looking for fiber lit buildings in the greater Houston area, PS Lightwave has “lit” over 1,100 buildings.
PS Lightwave’s fiber lit buildings can support bandwidth ranging from 10 megs to up to 40G+ and feature:
- Full duplex and bidirectional Internet network providing the same level of bandwidth in both directions of the fiber simultaneously, ensuring both your upload and download rates are consistent—optimal for remote offices or cross-office collaboration.
- Capacity to burst up to a higher bandwidth for a boost in speed when needed, allowing businesses to transfer large files without interruption.
- Greater connectivity within a switched, Layer 2 environment.
Contact PS Lightwave today to find out how a fiber lit building can help your business gain a competitive advantage.
PS LIGHTWAVE provides high-speed, fiber Internet for public and private commercial entities in the Greater Houston and surrounding areas.
Through our high-quality infrastructure, innovative technology and expert, locally based support, we deliver not only the best in connectivity and reliability but in scalability and redundancy. We invite you to learn more about our services, our history and our dedicated team.
