The Locate Crisis

An unprecedented amount of network construction has been take place over the past few years as the nation works to try to bring better broadband to more Americans. And that pace of construction will only accelerate over the next several years as the BEAD program subsidizes new networks in unserved and underserved areas. Many of those new fiber networks will be installed underground. But while the process of burying conduit and cables is fairly straightforward, there’s a hidden crisis affecting the deployment of these networks - a shortage of qualified, well-trained workforce to do the necessary job of locating existing underground utilities to hopefully prevent crews from damaging those faciities. This “locate crisis” is being felt around the country, and in the latest episode of Broadband Action, we discuss how it is impacting the work of the engineers that design the networks, the construction companies that build the networks, and the broadband providers who need that network completed in a timely basis to provide services to a hungry consumer base. Hosts Curtis Dean and Todd Kielkopf are joined by Ronnie Marler with NewCom Technologies, Greg Hinz with Fort Dodge Fiber, and Brett Niles with Open Country