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We know the shortage of tower climbers is slowing the 5G deployment. But there’s another shortage that’s equally detrimental, though it sometimes gets less visibility.
Perhaps because much of the time, it’s actually less visible.
We’re talking about the fiber network. And 5G and smart cities cannot exist without it.
In the top 25 U.S. metro areas alone, 5G needs 1.4 million miles of fiber. An estimated $130B-$150B in U.S. fiber investment is needed over then next few years to support the network!
Our guest this week is Lisa Youngers. She’s the President & CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association. The association is seeing growth of fiber across all applications…and we’re just at the beginning of the deployment.
The limits to deployment come from two directions—the barriers to construction and the labor shortage. The Fiber Broadband Association works to tackle them both.
In this episode, Lisa explains the common barriers to deployment. And she describes how the association works with policy makers to ease these burdens.
But having permits without people to build out the plans doesn’t speed things up.
Lisa says one of the association members is short 100 crews. Not people…crews. And other members have shortages as well, so they’re forced to turn down work.
Listen now to hear the creative ways the Fiber Broadband Association and its members are working to overcome these shortages to propel fiber deployment forward.
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