Deployment Challenges and Opportunities in Fiber

Client Director, Mary Santos, got the opportunity to attend Regional Fiber Connect in Raleigh, North Carolina on February 7th, 2023. These events give us a great look into what is happening in our industry and allow us to reflect on how to evolve with the ongoing change. Read below to see Mary's insights from this event. 

The biggest challenges in deployment started when COVID began to spread through the US.  Although we are in a different place than we were 2 years ago, the effects are still felt across the board.

Scarcity of materials, retention of vendors/workforce, and permitting were mentioned to be the main issues increasing times to deployment in the past year.  

Providing solutions for low material inventory has been a priority, especially during an unprecedented inflation period.  Being creative in controlling expenses, housing material with vendors for future use, and creating procurement reports to provide transparency are just a few of the small remedial answers to these problems.  This is good for now, but more needs to be done to overcome these wait times for the supply chain in order for a successful deployment to happen.

Creating strong relationships with municipalities to get through the permitting process has been key for timely deployments.  Additionally, vendors can help during these hard times and are ideal long-term partners once you cultivate a strong reciprocal relationship and provide projections for additional work orders.  This goes the same for staffing internally for fiber companies.

Retention of employees involves great leadership and opportunities for growth within a company rather than a higher salary requirement.  Through strong recruiting partners, internship programs, and advancement within departments, companies are more likely to be successful in creating a desirable work environment.  

Stability during these hard times with collaboration of partners, staff, and customers will help alleviate some of this pain.  In order to handle the large influx of funding coming available across this nation, this industry needs to be prepared to manage and forecast what is to come.