DENVER – Network operators are getting creative to overcome 5G deployment obstacles like supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, and rising interest rates and costs.

“Competition for skilled labor is very much a reality,” Christian Hillabrant, chief operating officer at Tillman Infrastructure, said during a panel at this week’s ConnectX event in Denver. “What we've done to help mitigate that is we've been putting people in from outside of the industry.”

The tower company hires and trains people early in their careers and gets them exposed to the telecom industry, Hillabrant said. And the operator also set an internal promotional rate of 80% to retain talent. 

“We'll bring in outside help when we need it, particularly leadership as we expand in the marketplace, but finding ways to grow that internal talent, creating a culture by which people see the successful long term," he said.

Based in the Dallas metro area, Tillman Infrastructure seeks talents in finance and other industries with “project and program management skills that are transferable into telecom,” Hillabrant added.

Wireless Operations Mears Group VP Ross T. Kruchten echoed that “it's brutal on the crew side.” And as tower sites become more rural, the crew has to deal with traveling and being away from home. 

Kruchten emphasized that workers are not “just an asset that you can send anywhere anytime … they're human beings and need to be treated that way.”

Similar to many other industries, 5G operators and tower companies are facing supply chain challenges. 

Kruchten noted the supply chain has been rough on the server side for Mears Group, especially on finding hybrid cable. “We're four months out and getting so tired to totally change how we rebuild sites or build half the site,” and the shortage slowed its business, he said.

“The bigger impact we've seen is a rapid rise in prices in the marketplace,” Hillabrant pointed out. In addition to the cost of fuels skyrocketing, steel, PVC, and other materials’ prices went up dramatically over the past two years, he added.

For those active components, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) “have been very smart in their planning this year, and in many cases, they've stockpiled large amounts of building equipment on behalf of the operators,” Hillabrant said.

OEMs foresaw a huge growth curve in the industry, so they have manifested and been able to supply in real time, he added.

For the fiber supply challenges, Tillman Infrastructure “has been able to effectively navigate around that and then substitute alternative products that meet the customer's needs and allows us to go forward,” Hillabrant claims.