BEAD Buy America Goals Get a Boost from Adtran

Adtran will invest up to $5 million in its Huntsville, Alabama, manufacturing facility to support domestic manufacturing of fiber broadband equipment. The move should make it easier for broadband providers receiving funding in the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) rural broadband program to meet Buy America requirements of that program. As Adtran CEO Tom Stanton explained, Adtran’s domestic manufacturing has “waned and flowed” over the 30 years that the company has been active “based on global markets and where the business has been.” Like many manufacturers, the company has moved some of its manufacturing to other countries. According to Stanton, the decision to bring that activity back to the US was directly driven by the BEAD program. Several manufacturers of fiber cabling also have announced initiatives aimed at enabling their products to meet Buy America requirements. Among these are Corning, Commscope and Prysmian. Adtran also noted that 57% of manufacturing employees are women, compared with a manufacturing industry average of 30%.