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GAO-23-105626 1 (2022-12-15)

handle is hein.gao/gaooah0001 and id is 1 raw text is: U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Washington, DC 20548 December 15, 2022 Congressional Committees Telecommunications Workforce: Additional Workers Will Be Needed to Deploy Broadband, but Concerns Exist About Availability Federal and industry investments have made broadband available to the majority of Americans, but at least 25 percent of the population in certain areas reported not having internet service, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2015-2019 American Community Survey data. According to a recent media report, people living in rural areas, low-income areas, and some predominantly Black and Hispanic and tribal communities are disproportionately affected by a lack of broadband availability.1 Broadband has become critical for daily life as everyday activities like work, school, and health care appointments increasingly occur online. Broadband also helps provide access to economic opportunity and civic engagement. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the importance of access to broadband. Recently enacted legislation includes large increases in federal funding for broadband deployment. For example, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act authorized the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program and appropriated $42.45 billion in funding for this program that may be used for broadband deployment.2 The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act also includes a provision for GAO to review and estimate the number of skilled telecommunications workers who will be required to build and maintain broadband infrastructure in rural areas based on current and potential need, as well as the wireless infrastructure needed to support 5G wireless technology.3 This report: (1) describes the current telecommunications workforce and estimates the number of additional skilled telecommunications workers needed to deploy broadband and 5G based on funding from selected recent federal programs and (2) examines what existing data reveal about a potential labor shortage for skilled telecommunications workers and stakeholder views on workforce concerns relevant to these skilled workers. The enclosed report addresses these two objectives in greater detail. 1Sarah Atske and Andrew Perrin, Home Broadband Adoption, Computer Ownership Vary by Race, Ethnicity in the U.S., Pew Research Center (Washington, D.C.: Jul. 16, 2021). 2Pub. L. No. 117-58, § 60102, 135 Stat. 429, 1182 (authorizing BEAD) (codified as amended at 47 U.S.C. § 1702), div. J, tit. II, 135 Stat. 429, 1353 (appropriating BEAD funding) (2021). 31IJA § 60604. The fifth generation of mobile communications, referred to as 5G, promises consumers faster data rates with lower latency in transmitting data. We refer to 5G as mobile broadband in this report. GAO-23-105626 Telecommunications Workforce Page 1

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