This week had even more excitement than usual on the rural broadband front with Corning opening its newest plant in beautiful North Carolina and inviting NTCA to be a partner in the celebration given our recent collaboration and Corning’s willingness to think about how they can put communications tools into the hands (or ground) of rural broadband operators as quickly as possible. While the typical Washington, D.C., top policymaker schedule changes prevented my participation at the last minute, some of our engaged North Carolina members made their way over to the ribbon cutting to represent the association and the industry. I’d like to give a special shout out to my friend Stephen Milner, CEO of Planters Broadband Cooperative in Newington, Georgia, who agreed to step in for me to share the NTCA message with Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and Corning CEO Wendell Weeks.
Stephen eloquently shared the critical role NTCA members play in these broadband deployments and our appreciation for working with Corning particularly given their collaboration focused on NTCA member company needs. I think he found it hard to restrain himself from adding a few Ron Burgundy quotes as well, but I look forward to hearing them the next time our paths cross since I owe him a beer for representing his peers so wonderfully and telling the story of the challenges and opportunities in the rural broadband space like only an industry leader can.
The event itself was really something. Corning has been manufacturing optical fiber and cable in North Carolina for more than 40 years, but its newest plant in Hickory has probably never played host to so many guests at the same time. Stephen, a delegation from Surry Communications, FOCUS Broadband, Zirrus and Star Communications and NTCA’s Laura Withers got a front row seat for what Corning’s investment in fiber and cable manufacturing – totaling more than $500 million since 2020 – means in added capacity and skilled workers there in Hickory. Corning anticipates this latest expansion will add more than 400 jobs to its North Carolina workforce. When I did my own tour with the Corning team and Administrator Davidson a few months ago, this plant was not quite complete, but it is within a stone’s throw of Corning’s existing plant that is clearly running 24/7 these days.
While North Carolinians are excited about the new jobs, we were delighted to join on behalf of the more than 850 community-based broadband providers in our membership who are eager to get to work putting the unprecedented amount of public funding for deployment to good use. As Stephen said during the ribbon-cutting ceremony, these cable and connectivity solutions from Corning will benefit small, community-based broadband providers by helping accelerate deployments and connect more Americans to future-proof, fiber technologies that will last for decades to come. His comments were amplified by the Commerce Department and NTIA, which took the opportunity to share that at NTCA we have joined with Corning to dedicate a portion of the cable manufactured at its facility to small, rural providers and co-ops so they can connect more Americans across the country.
It looks like the best part of the visit was taking photos in front of the giant spools of fiber that served as an apt backdrop to the day’s events. Donna Bullard of Star Telephone and Keith Holden of FOCUS Broadband even joked that they wished they had brought a truck to take a few home as both are in the middle of buildouts using state and federal grants. And even as members continue to work through how to best get access to fiber, we know that securing other equipment like routers or handholes presents persistent challenges as well. I am mindful that even with some easing, in the words of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” when it comes to the demand likely to be on the horizon in 2024 as funding under the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program begins to flow.
We continue to hold out hope that policy makers will work with service providers and manufacturers to provide greater flexibility and certainty in provisions related to materials and products and help ensure that the vision of the bipartisan infrastructure law can be realized in terms of universal broadband connectivity.
Meanwhile we are pulling out all the stops to help our members overcome these challenges through advocacy at the highest levels and our NTCA-Corning Rural Broadband Supply Program. We hope this program will help some of you overcome some of your supply challenges and ultimately help connect more Americans. Look for more info from us about how you can get involved in weeks to come.