The Great Telecom Cash Flow Crisis (And why it’s threatening the entire industry)
If you’ve worked in telecom contracting for more than a minute, you already know this story: Crews grind day after day, invoices go out, but the money? Nowhere to be found.
❌ 90–120 day terms.
❌ Clients holding retainage like ransom.
❌ Factoring companies swooping in like vultures to take their cut.
Meanwhile, contractors are left begging banks for loans just to keep payroll going. The work is finished, the fiber is in the ground, the invoices are approved—but the checks don’t come.
This isn’t just a “contractor problem.” It’s a systemic failure that’s threatening the health of the entire telecom industry.
The Workforce Drain: How Prime Contractors Are Undermining the Telecom Industry’s Future
The U.S. telecom industry is at a critical inflection point. Billions are being poured into fiber and broadband expansion by large ISPs and public funding programs like BEAD and RDOF. But while the investment headlines sound promising, there’s a quieter, more dangerous issue happening on the ground: the slow, systematic erosion of the subcontractor workforce that this entire buildout depends on….