U.S. wavelength services demand continues to expand as hyperscalers, AI infrastructure providers, and data center operators scale high-capacity optical interconnects. A new report from Vertical Systems Group ranks Lumen Technologies as the leading provider in the 2025 U.S. Wavelength Services LEADERBOARD, marking the fifth consecutive year the company has held the top position.
The LEADERBOARD ranks service providers by billable circuit share in the U.S. market for retail and wholesale wavelength services. Wavelength circuits provide dedicated Layer-1 optical fiber connectivity between two locations at gigabit speeds. The 2025 ranking lists Zayo Group in second place, followed by Verizon, AT&T, and Crown Castle. Companies must hold at least 4% of the U.S. wavelength services market to qualify for LEADERBOARD status.
The report also identifies a “Challenge Tier” of providers with between 1% and 4% market share. Companies in this tier include Arelion, Brightspeed, Cogent Communications, Frontier Communications, and Uniti Group.
• Lumen ranks #1 in the U.S. Wavelength Services market for the fifth consecutive year.
• Zayo ranks #2 and has announced plans to acquire Crown Castle’s Fiber Solutions business in mid-2026.
• Verizon ranks #3 and completed its acquisition of Frontier Communications in January 2026.
• Overall installed wavelength circuits in the U.S. grew approximately 7% in 2025.
• Providers report strong demand for 400 Gbps wavelength services across their networks.
• Adoption of 800 Gbps wavelengths is increasing, driven by hyperscalers, neocloud providers, AI and GenAI companies, data centers, and large enterprises.
• Major deployment challenges include fiber capacity upgrades, equipment and space procurement delays, operational complexity, and power availability.
• Lumen, Verizon, and AT&T also rank on the 2025 U.S. Carrier Ethernet LEADERBOARD.
• All five LEADERBOARD companies supply lit fiber connectivity to commercial buildings and data centers.
• The most widely deployed optical networking platforms among these providers come from Ciena, followed by Nokia and Cisco.
“The U.S. wavelength marketplace diverged sharply in 2025, with several vendors posting double-digit circuit growth while others remained flat or had declines,” said Rick Malone, principal of Vertical Systems Group. “All major wavelength providers are now offering 400 Gbps waves across their footprints and are actively ramping 800 Gbps installations.”
🌐 Analysis: The ranking highlights how wavelength services remain a core building block of modern AI and hyperscale infrastructure. As GPU clusters expand across metro and regional campuses, operators increasingly rely on high-capacity Layer-1 optical connectivity to link data centers and cloud regions with deterministic performance and low latency.
Industry momentum toward 400 Gbps and emerging 800 Gbps wavelength services also aligns with the broader optical roadmap from suppliers such as Ciena, Nokia, and Cisco, whose coherent optical platforms enable operators to scale backbone and data-center interconnect capacity without extensive fiber overbuilds.
