US Telecom’s CEO says the constraint on America’s AI infrastructure is governmental, not technological
While no one can debate that fiber is the right medium to support data center and hyperscale data centers that are the backbone of AI, service providers building out new infrastructure face a fundamental roadblock: getting access to necessary permits promptly.
Jonathan Spalter, CEO of US Telecom, told Senators during the Hearing on “Intelligent Networks: Powering Artificial Intelligence and Transforming Communications” that while service providers continually are building networks that support an array of lit and dark fiber solutions for hyperscalers, a lack of clear permitting is impeding these providers’ progress.
“The primary constraint on America’s AI infrastructure is not technological,” he said. “It is governmental. Permitting is the single largest roadblock to delivering AI-ready connectivity in every community, and it is squarely within Congress’s power to address this year.”
He added that service providers are ready to advance new networks forward, emphasizing the large capital they have dedicated to building network infrastructure.
“We have invested $2.2 trillion over the past 30 years, since the earliest days of the commercial internet,” Spalter said. “We directly employ roughly 570,000 Americans – engineers, data scientists, and cybersecurity specialists working alongside the field technicians who keep these networks running, and we have decades of experience working with artificial intelligence to strengthen the reliability and efficiency of our networks.”
AI to accelerate network traffic growth
The emergence of AI represents a sea change in how to operate and manage a network. Unlike the bursty nature of today’s internet, AI inference does not act like the internet. Cisco noted in its AI Impact on Wide Area Networks Cisco Report 2026 that consumer network traffic is forecast to run roughly 6.6 times higher by 2035, with AI the dominant driver of growth. Enterprise Agentic AI is expected to bend the curve even more steeply, powering a 9-fold expansion in related traffic by 2035.
Permitting hang-ups
As service providers look to build out networks that will accommodate AI traffic needs, there’s a need to locate network connections that are closer to every user.
But shortening the distance will make the network experience more responsive. The reality is that service providers need not only access to necessary infrastructure like utility poles, but also permission to build infrastructure on private and government-owned property.
“Latency is a function of distance, and distance is a function of geography,” Spalter said. “You close it by building closer to the user – which means opening a trench, crossing a right-of-way, filing a permit. Thousands of times, in thousands of jurisdictions. Simply put, the physics of AI turns a computing challenge into a permitting challenge. And that’s a problem we can solve today.”
The effect of permitting delays has been seen in states like Minnesota and Ohio, where delays caused a provider to abandon their respective projects.
In Minnesota, a city demanded a $63,000 permit fee plus nearly $29,000 in per-foot charges for a single block of fiber. When the city would not negotiate an alternative, the provider had to walk away from the project.
Meanwhile, when an Ohio town ignored a provider's application, the deployment was abandoned.
Service providers looking to build out new fiber infrastructure are also facing federal permitting delays, which can take up to four years in some cases.
One of US Telecom’s members was required to conduct an environmental review of a corridor that already held a telephone line, power and natural gas lines, and a county road – land previously disturbed and previously analyzed.
Spalter urged Congress to accelerate the permitting processes through the passage of three key proposals: the CLOSE THE GAP Act (S. 4561), Broadband and Telecommunications RAIL Act (S. 3268), and the Accelerating Broadband Permits Act (S. 4448). Additionally, he suggested that Congress reauthorize CISA 2015 to ensure network safety and security.
Introduced by Senators Barrasso and Lummis, the CLOSE THE GAP Act streamlines agency permitting regulations for broadband and exempts previously permitted and previously analyzed land from duplicative review.
Railroad crossings are also an Achilles' heel for providers building networks. The Broadband and Telecommunications RAIL Act, which Senators Blackburn and Luján previously introduced, sets enforceable timelines for railroads to respond to and schedule crossing work, puts a limit on arbitrary fees that can run into the tens of thousands of dollars for a single crossing, narrows the grounds for denial to genuine questions of safety and railroad operations, and gives the FCC a role in resolving disputes.
“Broadband providers are ready to build,” Spalter said. “What stands in the way is a permitting system designed for a different era, and a problem that is often misdiagnosed. Our difficulty is rarely an outright “no” from a permitting authority. Our primary difficulty is the absence of an answer. It is delay. Running out the clock – through a construction season, through a grant deadline, through a community's patience – until the project is more expensive or abandoned.”
Addressing workforce shortages
As providers expand existing networks and build new ones, the other issue they face is a workforce shortage.
To make the network builds happen, the industry needs a skilled workforce that includes an array of local surveyors, trenching crews, splicers, and technicians who live in the communities they connect.
A joint Fiber Broadband Association and Power & Communication Contractors Association study found that there is an “urgent need” to recruit and train about 180,000 workers to build out federal and state-funded broadband networks.
To avoid delays, the study suggests that 28,000 more broadband construction workers and 30,000 more broadband technician workers are needed to execute the current amount of planned federal and state broadband funding. Moreover, the research predicts that an additional 119,200 construction and technician workers will be needed over the next 10 years to compensate for retirement and attrition.
“Putting fiber in the ground requires a skilled workforce – surveyors, trenching crews, splicers, and technicians who live in the communities they connect,” Spalter said. “These are jobs in your states: trenching crews in Nebraska, splicers in New Mexico, technicians in Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Montana, and Ohio. Demand already outstrips supply. Industry analyses already project a shortfall approaching 180,000 skilled workers through the early 2030s.”
With the promise of good-paying jobs to build out necessary fiber infrastructure, various entities have developed credentialing and certification programs.
The Fiber Broadband Association and Louisiana’s Office of Broadband Development and Connectivity are two examples of training programs developed in collaboration with local community colleges.
FBA’s Optical Telecom Installer Certification (OpTIC Path™) program is helping to train fiber broadband technicians and fill the workforce gap. FBA is currently engaged with 40 of its targeted 56 states and territories to roll out the OpTIC Path program, with 44 service providers and 70 community colleges and training institutions.
Likewise, Louisiana’s Office of Broadband Development and Connectivity has partnered with the Louisiana Community and Technical College System to offer broadband-related training at each of its 12 campuses.
States like Texas and New Mexico are also acting with new fiber broadband training programs.
In 2025, Texas created its Building the Texas Broadband Workforce Grant Program, providing $25 million to seven organizations that will provide tuition-free broadband training. The state funded the program through a one-time commitment from the state’s Broadband Infrastructure Fund.
Likewise, New Mexico announced plans to offer free monthly broadband certification classes across the state, using $2 million in congressionally directed spending from fiscal year 2024. The classes and workshops, which began in February and will be free to participants, are paid for by the U.S. Congress and administered by OBAE. OBAE has contracted with Building Industry Consulting Service International (BICSI), which will provide lab equipment, workbooks, tools, and all teaching equipment. All courses are held monthly and will consist of five days of hands-on training.
Having a well-trained workforce to install fiber will also have a key impact on communities as they look to attract
“As our nation works to bring the production of chips, routers, microprocessors and optical transceivers back to the United States, we know advanced manufacturing does not locate where the network does not reach. Reindustrialization and broadband deployment are the same project, and the rural communities competing for those facilities know it.
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About the Author
Sean Buckley
Sean is responsible for establishing and executing the editorial strategy of Lightwave across its website, email newsletters, events, and other information products.
