US Department of Commerce Celebrates Fiber Manufacturing Expansions in Tennessee

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information April McClain-Delaney traveled to Jackson (TN) with Senior Advisor to the President and White House Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu to celebrate new fiber optic cable production in the US made possible by the Biden-Harris Administration’s Internet for All initiative, a key component of President Joe Biden’s Investing in America agenda. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) requires the use of Made-in-America materials and products for federally funded infrastructure projects, including high-speed Internet deployment. As a result, Prysmian Group has invested $30 million to convert its Jackson copper cable facility into a state-of-the-art fiber optic cable manufacturing plant, creating new jobs in America that will help close the digital divide. This investment builds on President Biden’s State of the Union pledge to build and buy American-made fiber optic cable. Prysmian announced this investment in May 2022. Since then, Prysmian has implemented a retraining program that allowed them to retain nearly their entire workforce, over half of which is women and people of color. Prysmian’s commitment to the production of domestic optical fiber and fiber optic cable will be foundational in connecting rural households across America to high-speed Internet service.