WASHINGTON—Citing a need for a properly trained and highly skilled workforce, a coalition of communications industry organizations have sent a joint letter to both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives requesting support for industry-specific workforce development programs.

The organizations that signed the letter include the NAB, NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association (NATE), the Competitive Carriers Association (CCA), CTIA, the Government Wireless Technology & Communications Association (GWTCA), the National Wireless Safety Alliance (NWSA), Rural Wireless Association (RWA) and the Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA).

In the letter, the groups are seeking stand-alone legislation for these workforce development programs, or for them to be included in a larger telecom/broadband infrastructure package.

According to the letters, bipartisan legislation has been introduced in both the Senate and the House that would meet these demands, including the Communications Jobs Training Act, the Telecommunications Skilled Workforce Act and the TOWER Infrastructure Deployment Act.

The letter was sent to the chairman and ranking member of the House and Senate Commerce Committees and their Communications Subcommittee, as well as the chairman and ranking member of the House and Senate Labor Committees and their subcommittees with jurisdiction over workforce issues.

“NATE is pleased to join our communications industry colleagues in reaffirming the critical importance of ensuring that we have enough properly trained and qualified workers to handle the enormous amount of work that the telecom industry will be undertaking,” said Jim Goldwater, NATE director of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs, in the organization's announcement.

The letter to the Senate Commerce Committee is available to read in full here, and the letter to the House Energy & Commerce Committee is available here. 

WASHINGTON—House Energy & Commerce Committee member Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa) has introduced a bill, the Communications Jobs Training Act of 2019, that would boost training for cell tower workers.

That comes as the FCC, over the objections of various local government officials, has taken various steps to pave the way for swifter and easier deployment of such towers with the avowed goal of closing the rural digital divide and winning the race to 5G service that will make wireless broadband a stronger competitor to wired.

The bill (HR 1848) would instruct the FCC to administer a grant program establishing and/or expanding job training for tower "service, construction and maintenance."

FCC Commissioner Brenda Carr—who has motormanned FCC efforts to ease rights of way and impose shot clocks on local government tower siting decisions and said that would translate to savings of billions of dollars in "red tape"—praised the bill.

“To ensure that America wins the race to 5G, we need to double the number of tower crews that are building this next-generation infrastructure," said Carr. "There is demand for up to 20,000 more tower workers. These are good-paying, 5G jobs. And as I’ve seen firsthand, America’s tower crews are unmatched in their skill, professionalism and dedication. ... By creating a pipeline of talented tower crews, we can help extend America’s global leadership in wireless.”

The FCC has been getting pushback from local governments who see the tower-siting moves as a threat to home rule and an overreach by the federal government into their zoning and environmental impact and historic preservation reviews. For example, according to the Daily Freeman, the Town Board of Saugerties, N.Y. (a Rolling Stone's throw from Woodstock), last week formally objected to the FCC's tower siting streamlining.