Expanding Cable Capacity to Meet Strong Broadband Demand
By John McGirr
Published: September 13, 2022
A recent announcement that we’re expanding our manufacturing capacity for optical cable furthers our commitment to serve the U.S. cable market and connect more people and more communities.
Our newest cable manufacturing facility is being built in Gilbert, Ariz., located in the Greater Phoenix region, and is expected to be operational in 2024. This will become the industry's western-most U.S. manufacturing site for optical cable -- allowing Corning to serve growing demand in the western U.S. and Canada.
We were joined by AT&T, one of our largest customers, and U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, in making this important announcement at Mesa Community College.
Why is this significant?
It is with AT&T’s commitment to expanding fiber service that we’re able to expand our cable capacity to serve the broader industry. We’re adding capacity during a time of record demand.
We were proud to share the stage with Secretary Raimondo whose agency is spearheading the national “Internet for All” initiative, which invests $45 billion to provide affordable, reliable, high-speed internet to everyone in America by the end of the decade. We’re also supporting the White House’s Talent Pipeline Challenge, a program to help employers build training partnerships that connect American workers to good jobs rebuilding infrastructure, supply chains, and manufacturing.
Mesa Community College was the right venue as we partner with technical colleges across the country to train the workforce we’ll need for our new facility – approximately 250, and to train the technician and network specialists to design, install and manage a growing fiber broadband network. The telecom industry projects that we’ll need another 850,000 technicians by the end of 2025.
We’re not only creating jobs, but we’re also doing our part to connect the unconnected. We know that optical fiber is the best choice in bringing affordable, reliable and high-speed Internet to all. And, we have work to do. The work of connecting America to broadband is still in its early stages – just 19% of U.S. homes were connected to fiber by the end of 2021.
To learn more about our training program, please click here.
