UPDATE Wireless Infrastructure Association President/CEO Jonathan Adelstein has been travelling the country, speaking with contractors who build wireless and wired broadband networks. He told the Media Institute last week the companies are excited about the prospect of $65 billion in broadband deployment subsidies for rural areas being hammered out by a bipartisan group of Senators in President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package.
But, Adelstein cautioned, “to a person, they told me they are already very busy and having trouble keeping up with the business already coming in the door.” In addition, “they’re confronting three major bottlenecks in short supply right now — heavy equipment and telecom gear reliant on chips — materials like fiber, which is back ordered for up to a year already — and skilled labor prepared to do the work in the field.”
“Right now there’s bad timing on all three, which means this could take longer than policymakers hope — and more delays than rural America can afford,” said Adelstein. “I’ve never heard more concern from contractors about the lack of available workers. If Congress adds massive additional demand when supplies are already short, contractors are telling me they just don’t know how they will get it done.”
He said with business booming, and skilled workers in short supply, Congress needs to invest in broadband workforce development – especially apprenticeships – along with investing in the infrastructure itself if lawmakers want to see it deployed any time soon. Congress is taking steps to address these issues, but it will take time to get the pipeline ready, according to the WIA executive. He called the Senate’s recent passage of the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act a “great step” to speed chip availability.
Labor shortages are happening in nearly every industry; 5G is a new technology, with new skills needed, he asserted. Adelstein cited an Accenture report that pegs the full impact from broadband 5G construction spending alone at a potential 120,000 jobs created each year during the first seven years of deployment. “Adding in the massive fiber buildout ahead, we need to ramp up telecommunications training and apprenticeship to ensure a large enough and properly skilled workforce to meet the demands of the infrastructure bill,” he said.
Congress can create a diverse pipeline of skilled workers ready for these jobs by taking bold action to invest in registered apprenticeships and evidence-based job training, he suggested. Adelstein called on Congress to create a corresponding initiative to accompany the infrastructure package that would develop and diversify the broadband workforce through additional support for registered apprenticeships and the educational and training system.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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