- AI is driving a new wave of fiber demand across both broadband and data center markets
- Workforce training and supply chain gaps remain the industry’s biggest bottlenecks
- The shift to “fiber to the community” will define how networks evolve over the next decade
FIBER CONNECT 2026, ORLANDO, FLORIDA — According to Clearfield founding CEO Cheri Beranek, that moment the telecom industry has been waiting for has arrived — thanks to AI — just not in the way many expected.
In an interview with Fierce Network at Fiber Broadband Association’s Fiber Connect 2026 event, Beranek framed the current market as both validating and unfinished. The implication is clear: The long-promised demand for bandwidth hasn’t just materialized — it has accelerated beyond the original expectations and assumptions of bridging the digital divide and Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD). But the industry’s ability to respond to that demand remains a big unknown right now.
For Clearfield, that shift is reshaping both its growth strategy and its definition of its role in the market. Beranek pointed to the company's three-pillar strategy anchored in protecting its core broadband base while expanding into adjacent applications, particularly data centers.
The data center opportunity
The opportunity in data centers has exceeded expectations. “The data center market sees us as being a fiber management company, not a broadband company,” she said, underscoring how the lines between traditional telecom segments are blurring.
That convergence is becoming a defining theme across the industry. Fiber networks originally built for residential broadband are now expected to support data center interconnect, edge compute and AI workloads. In many cases, operators themselves are becoming part of the data center ecosystem.
Beranek described this as a structural shift rather than a temporary trend — one that will expand demand over the long term rather than cannibalize existing broadband use cases.
“Getting revenue off of the fiber lines… won’t be just from the consumer, but it will be from the data centers looking for the route paths,” she said.
What is the near-term outlook?
Despite strong demand fundamentals, the near-term outlook is constrained by familiar operational challenges. Workforce limitations remain front and center, especially as technicians move between broadband and data center roles.
“It’s really going to be a training issue all the way across,” Beranek said, noting that labor shortages are not confined to one segment of the industry.
Clearfield’s response has been to simplify deployment and reduce training complexity through modular products and digital tools, including mobile-based training applications. The goal is less about incremental efficiency and more about enabling a workforce that can keep pace with deployment timelines.
Supply chain issues are also re-emerging, particularly around high-count fiber. “Everything over 432 is tough to get,” Beranek noted, adding that claims of sufficient domestic supply don’t align with reality.
Overlaying those challenges is the uneven rollout of U.S. broadband funding programs. Beranek was candid about the timing: Meaningful revenue impact from BEAD-backed deployments is still years away. “We’re not going to see any money… in ’26,” she said, pointing instead to a longer timeline shaped by political and bureaucratic factors.
The real buildout, in her view, will happen incrementally — “one community at a time, one state office at a time.”
If the short-term picture is fragmented, the long-term vision is more expansive — and more ambitious. Beranek argues the industry is moving beyond fiber-to-the-home toward a broader “fiber-to-the-community” model that combines public infrastructure, enterprise needs and network monetization strategies.
At the same time, the growing interdependence between broadband networks and data center infrastructure suggests a more durable demand cycle. AI workloads, edge compute and distributed data processing will all require continued fiber densification.
Beranek sees this as a multi-decade opportunity rather than a short-lived boom. Reflecting on past cycles, she said the current wave of investment differs from the dot-com era because capacity is being built alongside a clear use case. “This is real… and it’s a decade-long-plus opportunity,” she said.
Indeed, the infrastructure layer is becoming increasingly central to how digital services function.
Whether this moment ultimately lives up to expectations will depend less on demand — which is now evident — and more on execution. One thing is clear, though: The industry has the opportunity it has been waiting for.