Fiber suppliers pledge support for BEAD deployments—but can they deliver?

The acceleration of Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment approvals and planning has mounted concern about whether equipment vendors have enough supply to help states connect all their remaining unserved and underserved locations. Corning, alongside fellow fiber manufacturers AFL, Lightera, and Prysmian, published a blog this week pledging to ensure sufficient availability of Build America, Buy America-compliant optical fiber and cable. Each company intends to prioritize BEAD-funded projects by working directly with award recipients “to align delivery lead times with deployment schedules.” Separately, Nokia announced it’s making its BABA products available to BEAD recipients through a joint stocking agreement with KGPCo. The companies boast they will help internet service providers “accelerate project execution” and avoid delays. Despite these reassurances, it’ll take some flexibility from the end customers to ensure vendors can manage BEAD demand, said Dell’Oro Group VP Jeff Heynen.