Zayo, a leading communications infrastructure provider, recently unveiled their today released The Zayo Bandwidth Report: Key Trends Driving the Bandwidth Boom, analyzing bandwidth consumption trends from 2020 to 2024.
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.”
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.
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 percent growth in wavelength capacity purchased, surging from 1.88 TB to 8.71 TB.
The software and technology industry also saw a massive 450 percent 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, 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.
To view the full report visit: https://www.zayo.com/info/the-zayo-bandwidth-report/
