President Trump to Boost 5G Workforce Training

The Department of Labor explicitly named 5G wireless network building as a goal when recently designating the Wireless Infrastructure Association as an industry intermediary to help train wireless workers — something that the association has long clamored for amid plans to spend millions of dollars on the effort. “We need to put the 5G job skills effort on steroids, and this is a nice big pill,” said Jonathan Adelstetin, the group’s president and former commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission. Adelstein expects labor demand will remain high and as necessary as ever given the wireless industry's recent interest in complex new network architecture ideas like opening the radio access networks (“open RAN”). “There’s going to be a crunch,” Adelstein maintained, pointing to the wireless carriers “firing a once,” the entry of new 5G player Dish Network, and builds related to the FCC’s recent auction of Citizens Broadband Radio Service airwaves. Adelstein said that if Congress moves on a broadband infrastructure package, lawmakers should include legislation aimed at training more 5G network builders.