Leaders from the data center and fiber industries came together in Austin, Texas this week as the Datacloud USA and Metro Connect conferences joined forces. And for good measure the conference organizers included the power generation companies, dubbing their 2025 show Datacloud Energy USA/Metro Connect Fall.
Fiber industry executives said they are getting plenty of requests from data center developers. But those developers are often pushing projects out of major metro areas in order to chase available power. So, they’re asking for fiber in places that don’t otherwise make economic sense for providers.
Sound familiar? Bringing fiber to remote areas is, of course, the goal of the government’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, which continues to evolve and so far has not resulted in many new connections.
Could the data center industry step in to connect parts of rural America? That depends in part on whether fiber providers are willing to take the terms offered by data center builders, primarily hyperscalers.
But there is some push back from the providers…
“Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should,” said David Kamphuis, VP carrier sales at fiber provider Segra, part of Cox Communications. “We have to do what is right, fiscally.”
Kamphuis was part of a panel at the Datacloud show entitled “How are new data center deployments driving additional fiber deployment?” moderated by Digital Bridge managing director Horace Zona. Some of the panel’s commentary sounded similar to the talking points fiber providers use when asked why government subsidies are needed to connect certain areas of the country.
“If it made sense on Day One to build it, it would have already been built. It hasn’t gotten built for a reason,” explained Dan Davis, CEO and co-founder of Arcadian Infracom.
So, what does it take to get fiber providers to commit to a data center build? “You have to have a belief set not just in the one place, but all along these routes,” Davis said. He added that the cost of a fiber build is typically around $300 million, a fraction of the $2 billion to $3 billion a hyperscaler may be spending on the data center at the end of the route.