Fiber vendors feel pain before BEAD

There's this annoying saying from coaches in every sport: "No pain, no gain." But that’s what seems to be going on with the big fiber equipment vendors before they start seeing revenues from Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) funds. “Last year was a very challenging year because we had an inventory work-down year,” said Gary Bolton, president and CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association. He said that during the Covid years, service providers were “buying up anything they could” and “stockpiling” because of concerns about the supply chain. This meant quiet factories, but fiber vendors didn't want to lay off workers, he said, because of the anticipated demand in 2024. But there’s good news on the horizon. Dell‘Oro is predicting things will pick up for broadband vendors later in 2024. And Bolton agrees, saying analysts are predicting strong fiber demand, starting later this year and continuing even beyond the BEAD years.