Some of the top executives from the cell tower industry are ratcheting up their recruitment efforts in order to field enough technicians to meet an expected upsurge in demand. As carriers work to deploy wireless networks on new spectrum bands, and upgrade their networks to 5G, those in the tower industry are working to make sure they have enough skilled technicians to actually do all that work.  

“I’m not worried about a labor shortage,” said Jay Brown, president and CEO of Crown Castle, here at the WIA’s Connect (X) trade show during a session featuring some of the biggest names in the cell tower industry. He said Crown Castle is finding enough technicians to work on both traditional macro cell towers as well as smaller locations for small cells.

However, Brown added that “we are recruiting people directly out of college, which we historically have not done.”  

Other tower company executives echoed those sentiments. Jeffrey Stoops, president and CEO of SBA Communications, said that it’s “so far so good” in terms of finding enough workers to climb towers. But he too said that SBA operates its own “tower university” to properly train a tower-climbing workforce.