In Case You Missed It…
Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief Leslie Stimson spoke with Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA) President/CEO Jonathan Adelstein about what’s cookin’ to prepare for WIA’s October 1 dinner titled: “Honoring Wireless Workforce Champions,” in Washington, D.C.
“The dinner is a fundraiser for our workforce development initiatives. All the proceeds [go] to benefit wireless education, training and apprenticeship programs through our non-profit WIA Foundation,” he said. Two honorees named so far are FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and AT&T EVP Global Connections & Supply Chain, Susan Johnson. Both, according to Adelstein, have made workforce development a top priority.
Why is training so important for 5G deployment? Think of it as three legs of a stool. “You need infrastructure to transmit, you need spectrum to carry the data, and you also need a workforce to build out the network,” explains Adelstein. “Without all three, there’s no signal. We want to make sure that that third bit is in place. We spend a lot of our time on the infrastructure side and the spectrum side, but we’re finding labor shortages are really a top of mind problem that we’re hearing from our members and people in the field.”
Expect to hear about more honorees soon. The top executives of towercos and carriers are expected to participate. To learn more about the dinner and the workforce development programs, go to: WIA.org and listen to the Inside Towers’ “Tower Talks” podcast here.
August 23, 2019
Reader Interactions