Inside Towers Exclusive Interview (Part Two)
New WIA President/CEO Patrick Halley is “bullish” on wireless. He points to fixed wireless gaining ground compared to cable and fiber networks in the home. “In the last year there were over 3.2 million net broadband adds. Fixed wireless was responsible for 56 percent of the net adds,” he told Inside Towers in an interview.
Alongside the growth of fixed wireless and the focus of member companies on getting federal broadband infrastructure deployment grants (see part 1 titled “Patrick Halley: WIA Advocates for Policy That Enables Wireless to Flourish”) is an additional WIA priority — workforce development. “Our focus is making sure we have highly skilled and a sufficient number” of workers to deploy broadband, he says. He cites C-band deployments and network densification as on-going work. Adding the abilities needed to close the digital divide means “having a workforce to make that all work,” says Halley.
“It’s about having a skilled workforce capable of deploying all these technologies,” he says. WIA is working with 78 employer partners and has registered more than 3,500 apprentices through its Telecommunications Industry Registered Apprenticeship Program.
Halley cites sector-based partnerships, with WIA acting as an intermediary between employers and academia, as a way to scale up the broadband deployment workforce. He cites a growing effort to make sure all Ohioans are connected to broadband and says the association believes the state’s 5G Readiness Program is a good template with an “opportunity to replicate the plan across the country.”
Macro towers are integral to the ongoing broadband efforts, according to Halley. He sees macro towers as “important to the success of the wireless industry today and tomorrow.” Halley says he’s going to SBA’s “Tower U” to learn how to safely climb.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
Reader Interactions