CommScope, a North Carolina telecommunications company and one of Catawba County’s largest employers, is halting a long-planned expansion project, according to The Charlotte Observer. 

The fiber-optic manufacturing facility project in the town of Catawba, just north of Charlotte, was projected to cost $60M and bring 250 new jobs to the region, according to a 2023 press release by the North Carolina Department of Commerce.

North Carolina’s Economic Investment Committee also terminated a nearly $2M economic development agreement grant it gave CommScope last summer as an incentive for the project. 

The demise of the expansion, announced Jan. 13, comes about a month after CommScope informed the state it would not reach its local hiring or investment goals.

In a letter, the company placed partial blame on delays in grant funding from the federal Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program, which works to expand high-speed internet access across the country.

The White House updated oversight of the federal grantmaking process in August 2025 through an executive order. Among the changes, the order calls for more oversight by senior government appointees or their designees in awarding grants. The National Association of Development Organizations, a nonprofit supporting regional and local government officials and development organizations, warned that the additional scrutiny may “introduce delays into the grantmaking process.”

CommScope reportedly told the state commerce department that a recent acquisition was another factor for missing hiring and investment goals.

On Jan. 12, the telecommunications company Amphenol Corp. announced the completion of its $10.5B purchase of CommScope’s Connectivity and Cable Solutions business. 

The parts of CommScope’s business that were not folded into the Amphenol merger will be rebranded as Vistance Networks.