Fierce Telecom – ATX Networks is on the verge of opening a new manufacturing plant in Michigan which will be capable of pumping out 400,000 to 500,000 new amplifiers each year and eventually also produce as many as 30,000 nodes each year. That plant, CEO Dan Whalen told Fierce, could be the key to helping cable operators win more funding from the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.

Whalen’s theory is based on the idea that strict enforcement of Buy American requirements attached to BEAD funding – requiring components used to contain 55% domestic content – could make it nearly impossible to source materials for fiber builds in a timely manner. ATX’s factory, the thought goes, could allow cable operators to seize on that time to market opportunity […]

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