Bolton recognized for leading the fiber broadband industry to success

Today at Fiber Connect 2023, the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) announced its Board Chair, Joseph Jones “JJ,” presented the 2023 Chairman’s Award to Gary Bolton, President and CEO of FBA. Bolton received this year’s award for his leadership in fiber broadband advocacy and championing FBA members’ ability to advance fiber deployments across North America. His work is helping to close the digital equity gap so that every community can access the benefits of reliable, high-quality internet.

Each year, the Chairman’s Award honors an individual or company that has shown tremendous effort to promote, educate, or accelerate Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH). Among many FBA successes to date, Bolton’s leadership has expanded fiber broadband’s public policy influence, workforce development initiatives, FBA’s research library, and FBA membership—more than doubling it in less than three years. He was presented with the Chairman’s Award on Monday, August 21, during Fiber Connect 2023 general sessions.

“Gary’s passion for fiber broadband is contagious. He works diligently to create awareness about the elite capabilities that only fiber can deliver and his efforts are convincing North America that when fiber leads, the future follows,” said Joseph Jones “JJ,” Board Chairman at Fiber Broadband Association and President at On Trac, Inc. “Gary is a pillar of our industry and leading an organized effort to connect every American to fiber broadband services and raise the quality of life for generations to come. We are proud to recognize him with this year’s Chairman Award.”

Bolton leads FBA’s efforts in the U.S. and Latin America, and represents the industry at events around the world. He has worked to ensure policymakers are well-versed in fiber’s benefits, leading FBA to provide resources to committees and departments. Within the last 18 months, as options were evaluated to serve the unserved, the U.S. Department of Commerce and NTIA declared priority for BEAD projects using end-to-end fiber; the Treasury Department encouraged American Rescue Plan Act funding recipients to prioritize fiber; and the FCC rejected Starlink’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund long-form application.

Under Bolton’s leadership, FBA also addressed the fundamental industry issue of workforce development. FBA published the Workforce Development Guidebook, providing an extensive framework for how states can use BEAD funding to solve local fiber workforce needs, and distributed it to all 56 state broadband and workforce development offices. FBA completed the Optical Telecom Installer Certification (OpTIC Path™) program pilot course in May 2022 and has since spread program engagement to 40 service providers and 67 community colleges and training institutes across 39 states.

To help ensure state broadband offices understand the economic and societal benefits fiber broadband provides, FBA published its Broadband Infrastructure Playbook for state broadband offices, as well as a series of Broadband Community Profiles highlighting the economic benefits fiber is already delivering to communities across the country.

Since accepting his role as FBA President and CEO in late 2020, Bolton has led the organization to grow its membership by over 106%. In July 2022, FBA announced that seven more of its members received All Fiber Certification. They join a growing list of 22 ISP member companies that have received that certification.

For more information on how Bolton and FBA are advancing the fiber broadband industry, visit fiberbroadband.org.

About the Fiber Broadband Association

The Fiber Broadband Association is the largest and only trade association that represents the complete fiber ecosystem of service providers, manufacturers, industry experts, and deployment specialists dedicated to the advancement of fiber broadband deployment and the pursuit of a world where communications are limitless, advancing quality of life and digital equity anywhere and everywhere. The Fiber Broadband Association helps providers, communities, and policy makers make informed decisions about how, where, and why to build better fiber broadband networks. Since 2001, these companies, organizations, and members have worked with communities and consumers in mind to build the critical infrastructure that provides the economic and societal benefits that only fiber can deliver. The Fiber Broadband Association is part of the Fibre Council Global Alliance, which is a platform of six global FTTH Councils in North America, LATAM, Europe, MEA, APAC, and South Africa. Learn more at fiberbroadband.org.

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