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Also, here's coverage of other key stories on Dycom:
· Dycom’s incoming CEO says it expects BEAD revenues to ramp in 2026
· Sizing up the top 2024 M&A deals
· Dycom advances wireless capabilities with Black & Veatch wireless unit acquisition
Dycom likes its chances in the fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and the emerging fiber market that will serve data centers supporting AI.
AT&T, Lumen, Verizon, Comcast, Brightspeed, Charter, and Windstream remain Dycom’s top customers. All these providers are expanding their last-mile fiber networks to serve broadband and extend metro routes for data center customers.
Daniel Peyovich, president and CEO, told investors during the network construction company’s fourth quarter 2025 earnings call that its relationship with these providers enables it to get a seat at the table.
“Looking ahead, we believe Dycom remains uniquely positioned to capitalize on the significant tailwinds we see driving the industry,” he said.
FTTH ramping
In the FTTH broadband realm, service providers continue to be aggressive with FTTH builds. According to a new Fiber Broadband Association Fiber Deployment survey with RVA Market Research & Consulting (RVA), fiber broadband deployments reached a new annual record of 10.3 million U.S. homes passed in 2024.
The 2024 survey data suggests that fiber now passes 56.5% of U.S. households. Fiber take rates increased slightly in 2024, growing to an average of over 45% based on unique passings. Service providers are achieving their first 20% take rate much faster and reaching higher take rates over time.
Dycom is seeing fiber broadband expansion growth firsthand. The company said that in 2024, its top customer added over 35 million incremental passings to their plans and the builds they already have in the ground today.
“In several of our customers' most recent earnings calls, they reiterated their commitment to their fiber-to-the-home plans, and some mentioned opportunities for increased velocity of builds, while others again increased total expected passings,” Peyovich said. “We believe fiber to the home will continue to be a significant growth driver for our business in fiscal 2026.”
During the fourth quarter of 2025, Dycom was awarded contracts for new Verizon markets while extending several existing agreements. Peyovich said, “These awards combine maintenance and fiber to the home, and we appreciate our partnership with Verizon and their confidence in our ability to deliver as they increase their programs in calendar 2025.”
But Verizon is just one customer pursuing an aggressive FTTH plan. Windstream could also be another key factor for Dycom.
Uniti, which is acquiring Windstream, told investors in December during the Bank of America Leveraged Finance Conference 2024 that it plans to expand its FTTH footprint further as it revisits the ILEC strategy. In 2024, Windstream extended its fiber coverage to 167,000 customer premises, bringing its total to over 1.6 million customers and surpassing 37% of its Kinetic footprint.
Peyovich acknowledged Windstream is a long-time customer but would not offer any specific demands it was seeing from the telco. “We must see how it plays out, but we believe we're well positioned,” he said. “Like many others, they talk about ramping up and look to ramp up their fiber-to-the-home program in the coming years.”
Overall, Dycom signaled that its fiber broadband customers have long-term plans that could extend over the next five years.
“If we look at the fiber to the home, over 35 million passings were added incrementally by our customers last year,” Peyovich said. “That's a significant number. We talked about what kind of impact that can have.”
He added that its customers “mostly talked about those being multiyear, going out to 2030 in many cases, so we see that playing out over the longer term.”
Eying BEAD, state broadband programs
In the broadband space, Dycom continues to monitor the federal government’s BEAD broadband funding program. Some states are further along than others.
Louisiana was granted over $1.3 billion from the U.S. government-run program designated as GUMBO 2.0, and a large portion of the awards are for fiber-based proposals.
For now, Dycom is conversing with the potentially awarded sub guarantees, which are also continuing with the state broadband offices.
“There's a little bit of a pause for some of the subguarantees that are waiting for the awards to be finalized,” Peyovich said. “We'll see exactly what the timeline plays out as the new administration puts its fingerprints on the program. But the rest of the states are still all systems go as far as figuring out exactly how it will play out and deploy.”
He added that Dycom sees some “potential for the back half of this year, probably more likely for calendar 2026.”
But BEAD is just one part of the public funding broadband equation. Several states are awarding service providers funding to expand broadband.
“Separate from BEAD, there continues to be substantial activity at the state level with over $1 billion awarded across 9 states for broadband infrastructure during the fourth quarter,” Peyovich said. “Many states continue to award grants for both rural fiber to the home and middle mile programs. We believe these state and federal programs present a significant opportunity for Dycom.”
AI, data center growth
While broadband builds are key to Dycom’s growth engine, the construction company is in the thick of new inter and intracity fiber builds to support hyperscaler data center providers.
Lumen, for instance, created a digital platform on top of its physical network, allowing cloud-like consumption of network services. Lumen's Private Connectivity Fabric℠ is a custom network that includes dedicated access to existing fiber in the Lumen network, the installation of new fiber on existing and new routes, and access to Lumen's digital services.
In August, Lumen contracted Corning to equip it with new fiber infrastructure. The agreement, Lumen’s largest cable purchase, will equip the service provider to meet the network infrastructure needs of major data center operators for years to come, including Microsoft, which announced last week that it’s investing with Lumen to support the rising demand for its data centers.
Peyovich said that Dycom’s work with Lumen on constructing its long-haul networks is gaining momentum. “Our previously announced Lumen award related to the long-haul over-pull work commenced in the fourth quarter and has begun ramping in the first quarter,” he said.
Besides Lumen, Dycom noted that customer conversations about AI digital infrastructure needs remain robust. While the company did not cite names, it said that two independent fiber providers recently announced their intent to build more than 5,100 long-haul fiber route miles across the U.S. to meet the growing demands of AI workloads, connect key data center locations, and provide a diverse path to other long-haul routes.
“Our customers awarded us various long-haul route segments during Q4 2025,” Peyovich said. “These deployments will begin in calendar 2025. We believe the most significant revenue opportunities for the long-haul market will occur in calendar 2026 and beyond.”
Top customers drive contract growth
Due to growth across its five customers, Dycom reported that contract revenues rose 13.9% to $1.1 billion for the 2025 fourth quarter.
Likewise, contract revenues increased 12.6% to $4.702 billion for the fiscal year that ended January 25, 2025, compared to $4.2 billion in the prior year.
From an organic perspective, contract revenues increased 7.4% after excluding contract revenues from acquired businesses that Dycom said “were not owned for the entirety of the current and prior year quarters.”
Total contract revenues from acquired businesses were $61.5 million for the quarter ending January 25, 2025, compared to none in the prior quarter.
For the fourth quarter, Dycom’s top 5 customers contributed 56.7% of total revenue and grew 14.2%, while all other customers grew 13.5%.
AT&T was Dycom’s largest customer, with $251.4 million, and grew 54.5% in total and 22.7% organically.
Dycom said these “metrics demonstrate the depth and breadth of our business, and we are pleased with the diversification and strong relationships across our customer base.”
Assuming its customers' fiber-to-the-home expansion programs, hyperscaler long-haul network projects proceed as planned, and wireless equipment replacement plans go forward, Dycom has forecasted that its fiscal year 2026 total revenue will increase 10% to 13% over fiscal year 2025.
While BEAD program builds are not included in Dycom's fiscal 2026 outlook, the Company said, “We remain well positioned to realize revenue from this program once it begins.”
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Sean Buckley
Sean is responsible for establishing and executing the editorial strategies of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report across their websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products.