Fiber advocates focused on permitting, Buy America and workforce

With funding allocations set for the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program – and fiber providers expected to receive the majority of grants – fiber industry advocates are now focused on a number of issues that will help make or break BEAD's success.

For the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA), some of the most pressing issues include boosting workforce development, settling how "Buy America" requirements will be applied to BEAD and passing permitting reform on Capitol Hill.

According to a Broadband Workforce Development Guidebook that FBA and Cartesian published this year, the Fiber Broadband Association estimates that "205,000 fiber optic technicians will be required across the nation over the next five years." (Notably, the federal government estimates BEAD will create 150,000 telecom jobs.) "States are unlikely to have faced a labor shortage similar to that facing the BEAD program," according to the guidebook.

The Fiber Broadband Association distributed its workforce development guide to every state broadband office to help educate them that workforce is an eligible expense under BEAD, and to ensure they have "strong workforce development plans" in their initial BEAD proposals, which are due to NTIA within 180 days. "We have a huge focus on workforce development," FBA CEO Gary Bolton told Light Reading.

The workforce issues facing the telecommunications industry, according to FBA's research, include unprecedented demand, a large skills gap, increased competition for labor and current training practices that are "too slow and will not scale to meet the needs of BEAD."

To that point, the Fiber Broadband Association has been promoting its own "OpTIC Path" fiber technician training program, which it's hosting in partnership with community colleges, learning institutions and ISPs around the US. According to the guidebook, OpTIC Path is "currently offered or being considered across 32 states."

Permitting and Buy America

Another issue top of mind for FBA is getting Congress to pass bills reforming the permitting process for broadband projects. "Anything that's going to delay the projects, whether it's not having the people to get it deployed or waiting years for permits to come through ... that increases costs," said Bolton.

Permitting reform has the support of other major industry groups as well. Earlier this year, FBA joined the US Chamber of Commerce and 300 other organizations in writing a letter to Congress calling for a reformed permitting process built on predictability, efficiency, transparency and stakeholder input.

And in a post last month, USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter said it was time to "pass permitting reform now," writing: "...the legislative fix is straightforward: put a 60-day shot clock on the application process. The relevant federal agency can say yes or no. After 60 days without action, the permit is deemed granted, and the critical infrastructure work proceeds."

The House Energy and Commerce committee held a hearing on permitting reform in April, considering a range of legislative drafts that would implement shot clocks on state and local government reviews of permitting applications, ease restrictions on federal land deployments, remove environmental and historic preservation reviews, cap fees and more. Conversations with Congress are ongoing, according to FBA's Bolton.

In addition to labor shortages and permit delays, the other major concern for the industry is availability of equipment as BEAD deployments ramp up. For that reason, groups like FBA are anxiously awaiting a decision from NTIA on how the federal government will apply Buy America rules to the multi-billion-dollar program. While NTIA chose to limit Buy America rules to fiber optic cable in the $1 billion Middle Mile program, the agency previously expressed that "manufacturers have time to re-shore or expand their operations" for BEAD. It's unclear when Buy America requirements for BEAD will be settled.

"We still have a lot of concern about the electronics and the procurement of chips and so forth and supply chain," said Bolton, who added that FBA recently spoke with NTIA Chief Administrator Alan Davidson on this matter but "there's not any new update from him."

Affordable Connectivity Panic?

One additional factor in BEAD's success or failure is whether or not the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) gets renewed before it runs out of funding next year. That program is currently providing a monthly subsidy to deliver free or low-cost broadband for over 19 million households, and many in the industry and government are concerned the program will dissolve, cutting families off their Internet connection, and leaving federally funded ISPs without a customer base who can pay for services.

Bolton, however, said he's "not in any kind of panic," because he sees "a lot of ways to be able to fund this program" if Congress does not pass a funding bill. That includes using unspent dollars from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), a suggestion raised by others like former nominee for FCC Commissioner Gigi Sohn. (Of the $20.4 billion allocated for RDOF, roughly $7 billion has been committed, given troubles by some initial winners like LTD Broadband, Starlink and Starry). Another idea was recently floated by a group of eight Republican Senators, who wrote a letter to the White House suggesting President Biden use unspent COVID relief funding to keep the program afloat while negotiations continue.

"I don't want to take any pressure off on Congress, but I'm confident that this is important and it'll get funded," said Bolton.

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— Nicole Ferraro, editor, Light Reading, and host of "The Divide" on the Light Reading Podcast.