US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo Announces Fiber Manufacturing Expansions in North Carolina

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 in America. As a result, two key manufacturers near Hickory, North Carolina, announced new investments and partnerships. CommScope and Corning are investing a combined nearly $550 million and creating hundreds of new jobs in America to build the fiber optic cables that will help close the digital divide. CommScope announced an additional $47 million investment towards expanding its U.S. fiber optic cable manufacturing, including its facility in Catawba, which is already the largest hybrid-fiber-coaxial facility for broadband networks in the world. According to CommScope, this facility will produce a new rural fiber optic cable that is specifically designed for rural areas. Corning announced the expansion of its US manufacturing capacity with the opening of its manufacturing campus near Hickory. It builds on the more than $500 million that Corning has invested in fiber and cable manufacturing since 2020. The company has also formed a partnership with NTCA - The Rural Broadband Association - to dedicate a portion of the cable manufactured at its facility to small, rural providers and co-ops that will connect Americans across the country.