NATE UNITE 2023
Like the wireless infrastructure industry it represents, NATE UNITE continues to grow. This year’s annual event of NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association gathered a record 194 booths, which was an increase of 30 over last year, and a record number of attendees in Orlando, FL.
“We’re very excited. There is going to be a lot of energy on the show floor,” NATE President/CEO Todd Schlekeway told Inside Towers. “Attendees have more programming to choose from, with three tracks of sessions running each day.”
After a couple of years of the C-band buildout, there is talk of a slow down in capex by the carriers. Schlekeway sees the annual conference as a good time to do a health check of the businesses of his contractor members.
“It’s going to be important from a contractor perspective, to diversify their customer base,” Schlekeway said. “The more you can diversify, the better you can weather the ups and downs of our industry.” Some NATE members are already diversified, he added. He will be listening during the conference to learn his members’ desires for more diversification.
NATE members are interested in how to serve their customers that have been awarded Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment from NTIA’s BroadbandUSA, which will provide $42.45 billion to expand high-speed internet access by funding planning, infrastructure deployment and adoption programs. Schlekeway firmly believes that all the technologies are going to be necessary, because of the diversity of the country geographically, between the mountains and the plains and the different infrastructure needs in densely populated areas versus sparsely populated areas.
“If we truly want to close the digital divide, it is going to take a technology neutral approach. That means fiber. That means fixed wireless, and other applications,” Schlekeway said. “Our members know better than most what works best in their regions, as well as who can deliver that last mile connectivity to the homes that are underserved or unserved.”
NATE’s membership continues to evolve. While macro tower work continues to be its bread and butter, the association is seeing more fiber deployment companies join and it now has more fixed wireless providers than ever. “Our membership continues to grow, and we are attracting member companies who offer turnkey services. They can do it all, whether that’s fiber, macro towers, small cells, or DAS. We also have companies who specialize in those different categories,” Schlekeway said.
Although NATE has expanded to provide traditional trade association representation, promoting safety for the technicians who are deploying infrastructure is still its core mission, Schlekeway notes. As a result, safety was the topic of many sessions in Orlando, including the Susan G. Harwood Course – Electrical Safety Awareness for Telecom Workers. “We’re now starting to collect trends from a safety perspective with our partnership with OSHA and the FCC,” Schlekeway said. “We’re getting site safety data that’s going to help us develop more training and more resources for the industry.”
In terms of workforce development, NATE has set a goal this year of getting tower tech programs up and running at three community colleges. It now has the Tower Tech I Turnkey curriculum that it can offer the schools. It already has three programs in use at schools in Ohio, Inside Towers reported.
NATE continues to use the movie it produced, “Vertical Freedom,” from a promotional and outreach standpoint. It is now available to rent or purchase on all the prominent Video on Demand platforms. The association is screening the movie at no charge in high schools and community colleges to promote tower work as a career.
“We are going to leverage the movie for promotional and career outreach, because it’s such a powerful representation of this industry and the career pathways that exist, and the opportunity that this industry can provide.” Schlekeway said. “That’s a big part of our overall workforce development initiative.”
Another workforce development initiative at NATE is the Telecom Jobs Connect website, which is an online portal where NATE members can post jobs. Job seekers can create a profile at TelecomJobsConnect.com and connect with potential employers.
Along with representing the industry before Congress, NATE works with the Department of Labor, OSHA, FCC, NTIA, FAA, the Small Business Administration, and the Fish and Wildlife Service. “NATE’s presence in the government relations, legislative and regulatory arenas has never had more visibility than we do now in Washington, D.C.,” Schlekeway said. “Because of the evolution of the industry and our membership, we’re being pulled into more policy areas.”
On May 16 and 17, NATE is staging its lobbying event where its members fly in to visit their congressional representatives in Washington, D.C. This is the first event of that type since the COVID pandemic shut it down, and Schlekeway is encouraging his members to participate. “There’s no more powerful advocacy than when our members tell their story to their representatives about the people they employ and the impact of wireless infrastructure on the economy and quality of life of Americans,” he said.
By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor
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