Interestinghttps://www.wsj.com/articles/high-speed-internet-plan-worker-shortage-be83a843?mod=djemCIO
The federal government is missing a crucial link in its plan to greatly expand access to high-speed internet service in rural America: enough workers to get the job done.
Fiber splicers—the workers who install, maintain and repair wired broadband networks—are in short supply. “We’re running around like chickens with our heads cut off,” says Jason Jolly, chief executive of Fiberscope LLC, a Sullivan, Mo.-based company that does contracted fiber-splicing work. Mr. Jolly says his five-person crew has been “getting nonstop calls for the last two months.”
And that’s before the money starts flowing from the government’s $42.5 billion broadband spending package. The industry is bracing for that spending to start flooding the market as soon as this year.
The Fiber Broadband Association, an industry group promoting network expansion, estimates that more than 205,000 additional workers will be needed through 2026. Other estimates for how many more fiber workers will be needed this decade have run as high as 850,000. But Nell Geiser, research director at the Communications Workers of America, says some of those figures are “unsubstantiated.” The Government Accountability Office estimates that some 34,000 additional workers could be needed this year to support the government’s broadband-expansion programs, though that estimate could vary depending on the timing of certain projects. Ms. Geiser says that figure is “much more realistic.”
Equipment manufacturers are making simpler fiber products that are easier to install, companies are teaming up to offer training programs and governments are adding fiber-technician certifications in state and community colleges.