Wireless Infrastructure Association Nabs $30 Million for Workforce Development
Pew said in a recent paper that states have multiple avenues for shoring up their workforces ahead of BEAD
WASHINGTON, July 7, 2026 – The Wireless Industry Association won nearly $30 million in funding for career development programs from the Department of Transportation, the group announced Tuesday.
The money comes in the form of a cooperative agreement, which is like a grant with more involvement from the agency in the funded project.
WIA represents tower companies, carriers, and others in the wireless ecosystem. The trade group’s Telecommunications Industry Registered Apprenticeship Program (TIRAP) will be expanded with the DOT funding.
TIRAP helps employers bring on apprentices for 16 jobs in the wireless and broadband industries.
WIA said in a release that TIRAP had more than 100 participating employers who had trained more than 7,000 apprentices so far. That’s an increase of 1,000 since July 2025.
The program also distributed $2.3 million in funding to participating employers since its inception in 2017, WIA said.
“This award builds on the success we've seen through TIRAP and reflects the growing recognition that registered apprenticeship programs are one of the most effective ways to address workforce shortages in our industry,” Deb Bennett, WIA’s vice president of apprenticeship, said in a statement. “We know what works, and we're excited to expand these opportunities to even more employers and workers nationwide.”
TIRAP supports apprenticeships in multiple tower and antenna worker positions, but also fiber splicing and central office installation.
Pew workforce study
The broadband industry is likely to need the extra hands. The $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program has for years been expected to increase demand for broadband crews beyond what the industry could supply.
A June report from Pew Charitable Trusts said state broadband offices should consider as many avenues as possible for shoring up their telecom workforces, including repurposing existing workforce development programs to save time and money.
A 2024 report from the Fiber Broadband Association estimated 58,000 extra workers would be needed to meet BEAD-induced demand, in addition to the 119,000 that would be needed over the next 10 years to replace retirees and career switchers.
That was put out before Trump administration changes to the BEAD program that reduced the amount of fiber being deployed, but it’s still one of the best estimates available, said Lexi West, a broadband access initiative officer at Pew and the author of its recent workforce report.
“It can be very time and resource intensive to do new training programs, and states don’t really have that,” she said in an interview last week. BEAD “has a tight four-year turnaround time, so that really means taking advantage of what exists now in terms of programming and resources.”
That can be a complicated thing to assess, she noted. There are pre-existing state and Tribal broadband workforce programs, programs run by community colleges and industry groups, and federal sources like Pell grants and skills training programs funded by H-1B visa fees.
States have been aware of the problem and are already working to address it in many places. West highlighted state programs in Louisiana, New Mexico, and Ohio.
One Ohio initiative was funded with BEAD non-deployment dollars, part of the state’s allocation that it didn’t expect to need for infrastructure projects. The Trump administration canceled any use of that funding until further notice last year, and has yet to release guidance that’s planned for this summer.
West said non-deployment funding could help spur existing workforce development programs, but there might not be time to stand something up from scratch with them, if that’s even what states would want to do with them.
“There’s just not going to be a lot of time to stand up new things,” she said. If the funds “result in more resources to layer on top of what they’re already found, that could be additive.”
Projects under the program are just now beginning to go through the permitting process and get underway in states that have signed their contracts with participating ISPs. It’s not clear to what extent states are noticing the issue nationally as projects begin.
Arielle Roth, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which manages BEAD at the federal level, recently told House lawmakers the agency would make public information submitted by states as part of their BEAD progress reports, which might include information on project roadblocks.
Kendra Jo Grindle, the chief program officer at Maine’s broadband office, said in March that one of state’s tentative BEAD awardees had to decline its grant funding. The company had built up extra crews in anticipation of its project, but wasn’t able to maintain them after changes to the program pushed back already long-awaited builds.
