NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association Chief Executive Officer, Shirley Bloomfield, recently sent letters urging for action on behalf of supply chain resiliency to key players in Congress.
This is an important subtlety compared to supply chain security.
Bloomfield wrote, “…many policymakers have rightly focused on supply chain security in recent years, but there is increasing concern as well about supply chain resiliency, and, without careful planning and thoughtful action now, this has the potential to undermine national objectives to connect as many Americans as possible in the coming years under these new programs. Starting in early 2021, NTCA members began to report significant and growing backlogs for critical communications equipment like routers, antennas, fiber, network terminals, and customer premises equipment—with delays in fulfillment ranging from several weeks to more than one year. In fact, in a survey late last year, 80% of NTCA members reported an inability or delay in procuring supplies needed for network deployment.”