Summary Bullets:

• US investment in fiber is accelerating at an all-time high as AT&T, Zayo, Verizon, and Lumen expand their networks to support AI and data-center growth.

• Building more fiber does not automatically translate into greater profits; customer demand, network utilization and investment discipline will determine the winners.

The US fiber market is in the middle of an AI gold rush, with telecom providers appearing determined that the machines never have to wait for bandwidth. AT&T’s recent partnership with Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and CPP Investments adds momentum to an investment race that already includes Zayo, Lumen, and Verizon. Each company is reshaping their networks to capture future demand from AI workloads and data center expansion. The enthusiasm is understandable, but with so many carriers reaching for their shovels, a more fundamental question remains: will AI demand deliver the returns the industry needs or will some investors be left digging for profit?

AT&T’s deal points to a shift in how communication service providers (CSPs) fund the next phase of their network expansion. By partnering with investment and private equity firms, AT&T can combine external funds with its existing fiber assets, accelerating deployment while sharing the financial risk. The venture’s wholesale, open-access model also widens the potential customer base to include operators seeking to support enterprise connectivity, data center interconnections, and AI workloads. The arrangement carries a trade-off, however. External funding eases pressure on AT&T’s balance sheet and speeds up the build, but AT&T must share future revenue and profit with its investment partners.

AI has now become the industry’s preferred justification for fiber spending, and every major carrier is investing in fiber networks to support the next phase of digital infrastructure growth. The expansion of hyperscale data centers and AI computing facilities is increasing the demand for those high-bandwidth connections between data centers, cloud platforms, and enterprise locations, which makes low latency and network resilience more important. Capacity alone will not guarantee success. Carriers must identify the routes and markets with the greatest potential, secure customer commitments, and maximize utilization to generate sustainable returns. AI is accelerating the investment cycle, but commercial discipline will determine which providers turn infrastructure spending into profitable growth.

As investment in US fiber networks continues to gain pace, providers must ensure that spending is backed by real customer demand rather than expectations of future growth. With AT&T, Verizon, Zayo, and Lumen all expanding their networks, competition will also grow across key markets, putting pressure on revenues and profitability. Partnerships like these can help spread investment costs and attract additional customers, but success will come down to how effectively CSPs use their networks. Routes that connect to established data center hubs may offer more immediate opportunities, while investments in emerging markets may bring greater uncertainty. Carriers must balance opportunity to capture growth against the risk of building capacity which may take years to generate adequate revenue.

AI is creating a significant opportunity for the US fiber market, but scale and timing of the future demand is less certain. As these four expand their networks, CSPs must look beyond growth and focus on profitable returns. AT&T’s partnership highlights one way to fund network expansion, while sharing the risk, however all carriers must have the customer demand to support long-term revenue growth. With competition increasing, more fiber will not automatically translate into greater profits. That leaves the question of whether success will come to those with the largest networks, or those making the smartest investment decisions.

The post The Great US Fiber Gold Rush: AI is the Excuse, but Who Will Actually Make Money? appeared first on IT Connection.

• Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping Australia’s fiber map, driving investment beyond city limits and into emerging data center locations.

• Route diversity is becoming strategic, with terrestrial and subsea network providing greater resilience and flexibility for future digital workloads.

Australia’s fiber build-out is getting a second wind – and this time, artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the rules of the game. In the same week, Vocus and SUBCO announced new terrestrial and subsea cable projects demonstrating that Australia’s connectivity investment cycle is picking up speed. But this is about more than adding fiber. AI, cloud and data center expansions are changing where capacity is required and creating demand for networks with diverse, resilient routes that can withstand outages, congestion and other disruptions.

Vocus announced that it will extend its terrestrial fiber footprint from eastern into northern Australia with a new 4,000km route connecting Brisbane, Townsville, and Darwin. The route expands the Australian Digital Infrastructure platform that the company announced in June 2026, to support increased demand from hyperscaler, neocloud, and enterprise customers. With a capacity for up to 3,456 fiber strands, the build is designed to accommodate future demand as AI and data center investment spreads beyond the capital cities. This highlights that terrestrial fiber will carry the next wave of data center and AI growth, particularly as demand expands beyond Australia’s major metropolitan hubs.

SUBCO is taking its build offshore, with three new 24-fiber pair systems planned to connect Australia with key markets across the Indo-Pacific and North America. APX North will link Sydney to Japan via Guam, and APX East-2 will add a new route from Guam to Los Angeles. APX West, the shortest of the three will connect Perth with Singapore and extend into Indonesia through Jakarta and Batam. SUBCO aims to complete all three systems by 2029. Together, they will add significant capacity and more route diversity between Australia, Asia, and the US. For carriers, hyperscalers and other high-capacity network customers, the extra capacity matters less than the resilience, redundancy, and connectivity options that diverse routes provide.

The connectivity race will not be won by whoever lays the most fiber, but by whoever lays it where demand is heading. Taken together, the Vocus and SUBCO announcements signal a broader strategic shift in Australia’s connectivity market; the focus is moving from adding capacity to building infrastructure around future digital demand. AI, cloud and data center growth are fueling demand for high-capacity networks, and route diversity and access to multiple international gateways now matter just as much. This turns terrestrial and subsea networks from connectivity assets to strategic digital infrastructure. As AI and data centers create new traffic corridors, the providers that anticipate emerging data center hubs and build diverse routes ahead of demand will be best placed to capture future connectivity growth.

The post Australia’s Cable Wars Are Heating Up: Thanks, AI appeared first on IT Connection.

Summary Bullets:

• The EU’s MSS 2 GHz proposal strengthens regulation, security, and competition, but implementation through 2027–2029 will be phased, not immediate.
• Small spectrum block sizes favor IoT, messaging, emergency services; large-bandwidth applications face bottlenecks.

When the European Commission unveiled its plan late last month to reassign the 2 GHz mobile satellite service (MSS) spectrum at EU-level, it initiated more than a regulatory proposal. With the dust now settled on the announcement, it is clear that this represents a geopolitical and commercial realignment. Signals in the market suggest the framework is firming up around core principles: sovereignty, security, restricted eligibility, spectrum caps, and wholesale access. But beneath those pillars lies a battlefield of interests that will define not just who wins licenses, but which services Europe values the most – IoT or in-flight broadband, messaging or full-fledged device-to-device (D2D) connectivity.

Implementation is no longer a reactive guesswork exercise; it is becoming a long game. While the proposal’s two-year incumbency extension mitigates the cliff edge in May 2027 (when existing licenses expire), it also reveals the commission’s understanding: that legislative processes, spectrum allocation, compliance criteria, and defining “EU provider” are unlikely to be resolved by that deadline. Toward end-2027 and into 2028, observers should expect spectrum awards, provisional licenses, and a cascade of certification, rollouts, and enforcement activities stretching well into 2029. This also coincides with ITU’s WRC-27 conference, in which key spectrum allocations – including MSS – and updates to radio regulations are expected to be finalized and will offer clarity on the international trajectory of spectrum allocations for MSS.

Commercial implications are now emerging with greater clarity. The planned 30 MHz paired allocation in 5 + 5 MHz blocks is modest; sufficient for low-bandwidth IoT, messaging, and emergency services, yet wholly inadequate for high-throughput, low-latency use cases such as in-flight broadband or widespread D2D applications. Telcos and satellite operators should be preparing for trade-offs: either focus on niche verticals where limited spectrum suffices, or scale via partnerships, capacity leasing, or wholesale models. The missing “IoT reservation” is not a bug; rather, it is a structural risk: IoT may get parceled out only where extra capacity exists, and only if stakeholders ensure selection criteria explicitly to protect it. D2D has won primacy as per the initial tone of the Commission in its press release.

Definitions will matter, especially in the case of the term “EU Provider,” which is morphing into a fulcrum for competition. The 2 GHz is currently occupied by two US firms: Viasat for European inflight connectivity, and EchoStar for IoT and mobile connectivity. Post-May 2027, such entities will need to operate through European-owned subsidiaries or JVs. AST SpaceMobile has already localized itself via Satellite Connect Europe and is expected to qualify. But expectation of strict control over decision-making, governance, and spectrum transfer will push non-EU-based providers – SpaceX (which owns EchoStar spectrum), Viasat, and Amazon Leo – to engineer complex JV structures or seek regulatory exemption. In the case of the latter, GlobalData expects both litigation and political pressure from incumbents based in the US, particularly via the US government or trade bodies, and especially within the incumbent Trump administration window. Retaliation against European satcos is also a possibility, though it is unlikely that the bloc will collectively budge.

For telcos, the strategic moment is now. Whether to bid directly, partner with incumbents, or secure wholesale access depends on scale, access to capital, regulatory risk appetite, and technical readiness. Device certification, security compliance, antenna deployment, and supply chain capacity remain gating factors. By late-2028, the winners will be those who have not only secured licenses or partnerships, but who align with the EU’s overriding narrative: resilience, sovereignty, and competition.

The post EU Proposal for MSS Spectrum Seeks to Balance Bloc’s Commercial and Sovereignty Aspirations appeared first on IT Connection.