Here’s how much fiber US operators are planning to build in 2023

With Q4 2022 earnings mostly in the rearview, a clearer picture of fiber build targets for the coming year has emerged, at least as far as US operators are concerned. While some operators have lowered their targets for both 2023 and their overall build plans, the industry still plans to build millions of passings in 2023. An informal tally found operators are plotting to roll out fiber to between 6.5 million and 7 million new locations – at a minimum. Top broadband operators' Q4 data reveals the following fiber updates:

• AT&T – The operator ended 2022 with approximately 24 million fiber passings. it expects to pass between 2 million to 2.5 million new locations annually from 2023 onward to hit its goal of reaching 30 million passings by the end of 2025.
• Altice USA – It is now looking to reach 900,000 passings in 2023, a slight step down from the 1 million it added in 2022. That’s down from its original target of 1.6 million for 2023, which was supposed to include 1 million passings in its Optimum footprint and another 600,000 in its Suddenlink territory
• Bluepeak – It reached 70,000 new locations in 2022 and is targeting more than 50,000 in 2023.
• Brightspeed – It is looking to reach more than 1 million passings by the end of 2023 and 3 million within five years. Its 2023 plans include 300,000 new passings in North Carolina, 170,000 locations in Ohio, 130,000 passings in Missouri, and 120,000 in Texas.
• Frontier Communications – Its original fiber build plan was 1.6 million locations in 2023. That figure is now 1.3 million. 
• Lumen Technologies – The company just cut its overall fiber build target from 12 million to 8-10 million and is targeting 500,000 passings in 2023. That compares to a previously expected range of 1.5 million to 2 million.
• MetroNet – It is striving to reach well over 500,000 new passings in 2023. A comparison figure from 2022 was not immediately available.
• TDS Telecom – It is looking to ramp up its rollout of new fiber passings from 133,000 in 2022 to 175,000 in 2023. The operator is aiming to hit 1.2 million locations by 2026 and ended 2022 with 582,000.
• Verizon – it seems expansion efforts are ongoing. It expanded our Fios footprint by over 550,000 locations in 2022, extending our Fios open for sales to more than 17 million locations. 
• Others – Several other operators have announced fiber expansion projects across the country, but have thus far not given concrete targets for 2023. These include Clearwave Fiber, Consolidated Communications, Nextlink Internet, Omni Fiber, Surf Internet, WideOpenWest (WOW!), and Ziply Fiber.