Broadband bottleneck

The lack of trained cable modem and DSL installers is creating a logjam for new customers.

By Drew Robb
Network World, 02/12/01

Erik Peterson's cable modem installation at Somix Technologies was at a standstill for weeks before Time Warner worked out the problem.

Jim Carrey's frightening portrayal of "The Cable Guy" may not be so far from the truth, at least when it comes to broadband. Network executives are often surprised to find just how little installers know about IT.

From print: Wires and pliers
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For example, Time Warner Cable spent six weeks trying to resolve a failed RoadRunner cable modem installation at network management vendor Somix Technologies of Sanford, Maine, due to poorly trained technicians.

"These were cable guys, not computer guys," says Erik Peterson, IT manager at Somix. "They could plug in a few wires, and that was about it." A knowledgeable technician eventually showed up, located a faulty cable splitter, replaced it and service began. Mike Luftman, vice president of Time Warner in Stamford, Conn., says the company's high-quality installation focus means such failures are a rare occurrence. He concedes, however, that broadband installations are far more challenging than traditional cable.

Somix's experience highlights a serious obstacle that is threatening to derail the broadband wagon - the severe lack of skilled resources. "There is an alarming shortage of qualified broadband installers today," says Michael Goodman, senior analyst with The Yankee Group.

According to The Yankee Group, the skills shortfall is having dire consequences on the industry. About 4% of U.S. households have broadband, yet 38% want it now and are happy to pay the price. Unfortunately, only half of those people will have it by 2004, and 20 million people will have to wait at least four years without service.

Why the installation logjam? A few years back, "cable" meant cable TV, a mature technology with an abundance of competent technicians. Today, cable also encompasses advanced digital cable, digital telephone service and high-speed Internet. Each demands a high level of know-how that transcends basic cable technology and moves over into IT.

The new breed of technicians should possess a range of skills that include the basics of wiring, and a proficiency in broadband technology, hardware/software essentials and networking, as well as people skills for client interaction. Most current installers don't fit the bill.

That's why so many service providers are investing heavily in training. AT&T Broadband, for example, has increased its training budget by 400% during the past two years. Despite stepped-up training efforts, insatiable demand for broadband means that most users continue to be subjected to installation snafus.

"The Pac Bell DSL technician wasn't very computer literate, had trouble opening a public IP address for our VPN, and had to read instructions each step of the way," says Morgan Scott, a network manager for The Futures Channel, a Los Angeles content provider specializing in career-oriented video clips.

Clearly, service providers are struggling to cope with heightened demand. Broadband self-installation software vendor BroadJump of Austin, Texas, sells its wares to the likes of AT&T, Sprint and Time Warner. According to BroadJump, these customers complain that they have plenty of wiring technicians, but a severe shortage of inside-premises PC technicians.

While the industry has long outsourced installation, it is now looking for products and companies emphasizing technical and customer service expertise. Scientific-Atlanta's SciCare Broadband Services, Premise Technology Division of Broadband Services and Viasource Communications are a few of the companies that have built a core resource of installers and technicians. Yet many of these companies run into the same skills shortage challenges as their customers.

FatPipeU of Irvine, Calif., offers a more comprehensive approach. In keeping with the notion that there is no shortage of labor, only a shortage of IT skills, FatPipeU targets the underemployed - unskilled or semiskilled workers who can and want to learn a new skill. There are 10 million underemployed people in the United States, according to former U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman.

Matt Feshbach founded FatPipeU when he heard about the installation logjam. "I realized that with more than a trillion dollars being bet on broadband, someone had to make sure the stuff got installed," says the company's CEO. "Broadband service providers, shareholders, customers and the community at-large all win if an army of broadband technicians are deployed."

Feshbach aims to recruit from the ranks of the underutilized and train them into an army of what he calls advanced broadband specialists: technicians who can install digital video, data and voice. During the past few months, FatPipeU has recruited, trained and placed close to a thousand workers with top broadband firms such as AT&T. With the IT labor market being so tight, this concept opens the door to a larger base of employees.

"FatPipeU offers a womb-to-tomb, turnkey solution to the broadband skills shortage that fills the needs of the industry," says Leo Hindery, CEO of GlobalCenter, the Web-hosting arm of Global Crossing.

But whether technician training is provided internally by service providers or outsourced to firms such as FatPipeU or Broadband Services, the industry as a whole needs to train competent broadband installers like never before. Along with meeting the massive backlog in demand, such a move could breathe the kiss of life into the moribund state of cable/DSL stocks. A study of 575 firms by the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) found that companies which invested $680 more in training per employee than the average investment of $915 per employee gained a 6% improvement in their total stockholder return the next year.

"It is clear that a firm's commitment to workplace learning is directly linked to its bottom line," says Mark Van Buren, director of research for ASTD in Alexandria, Va. "Investors, Wall Street and financial analysts should pay attention to it."