Broadband stimulus status report: Fiber Shortage

[Commentary] Engebretson checked in with some broadband stimulus winners to see how their projects were coming along. With the exception of some problems obtaining fiber that has caused some delays, all four of the stimulus winners are progressing well. A couple of them already have customers using broadband service that was made available as a result of the stimulus program -- and jobs clearly have been created as a result of the program. Three people mentioned the fiber shortage.

“I heard from our fiber vendor that the tsunami took Sumitomo off line,” said Joshua Broder, president of Tilson Fiber Technology, the company that is managing a large middle mile fiber project in Maine for stimulus winner Maine Fiber Company. Broder said the shortage hasn't impacted Maine Fiber’s project, in part because the organization was a Round 1 stimulus winner and already had a lot of its fiber on hand or in the pipeline before the shortage arose. Not everyone has been so fortunate. Tom Lorenz, operations manager for Minnesota-based stimulus winner Federated Telephone Cooperative said Federated’s fiber-to-the-home project was supposed to start at the end of May but that date has been pushed out to the first week in July because of delays in obtaining fiber.