Senate Tackles 5G Tech Workforce Issues

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published

The Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled a hearing to look into the workforce needs of deploying 5G wireless broadband. 

The hearing will be at 10 a.m. on Jan. 22 and will look at what skills and training will be needed to deploy those next-gen networks and what industry is already doing to anticipate and meet those needs. 

And being a Republican-led committee, the hearing will also look at "regulatory barriers" that could be impeding 5G leadership and closing the digital divide. 

Testifying at the hearing will be FCC commissioner Brendan Carr; Jimmy Miller, president of MillerCo. Inc., and chairman of the National Association of Tower Erectors (NATE); and Lisa Youngers, president of the Fiber Broadband Association. 

Carr has been leading the FCC's effort to streamline 5G buildouts, including scaling towers short and tall to get a feel for the challenge.  

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.