USTelecom urged OMB to ease permitting for broadband deployment on federal lands and loosen requirements for the BEAD program, in comments filed Monday in response to OMB’s April request for information on deregulation opportunities. Permitting processes “are the single most time-consuming aspect of a broadband build and create unnecessary delays,” USTelecom said. OMB should work with other federal agencies to create uniform categories, so such permits would be deemed granted if they satisfy consistent conditions, such as when permits are sought for previously disturbed land. “Requiring further review for previously disturbed or analyzed areas simply squanders the resources of government and businesses, while needlessly driving up costs and delaying broadband deployment."
NCTA representatives downplayed USTelecom's objections to new rules on pole attachments in a meeting with FCC Wireline Bureau staff (see 2504220015). USTelecom's claims are “either factually inaccurate and/or incorrect,” cablers said. Representatives of NCTA, Comcast, Charter Communications and Cox Enterprises attended the meeting.
USTelecom urged the FCC to reject an April filing that sought an “immediate halt” of four Wireline Bureau orders released in March whose goal was to quicken copper retirements (see 2503200056). Filing as the Irregulators, LTC Consulting and X-labs said the bureau shouldn’t be allowed to issue the order on delegated authority without commission debate or public comment.
A petition by major trade associations asking the FCC for a rulemaking on the commission's enforcement procedures, especially in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 Jarkesy decision, raises interesting issues for the agency under Chairman Brendan Carr, industry experts told us. The groups on the petition are CTIA, the Competitive Carriers Association, NCTA, USTelecom and the Wireless Infrastructure Association (see 2505010058). Experts said they’re watching closely what the FCC does next.
Major communications trade groups filed a petition Thursday asking the FCC for a rulemaking on its enforcement procedures, especially in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 Jarkesy decision about whether federal regulatory agencies can bring in-house proceedings to enforce civil penalties. CTIA, the Competitive Carriers Association, NCTA, USTelecom and the Wireless Infrastructure Association filed the petition.
Wi-Fi advocates on Monday filed at the FCC a study by Plum Consulting countering a recent NextNav engineering study that found no interference concerns with the company’s proposal for the FCC to reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band “to enable a high-quality, terrestrial complement” to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services (see 2503030023).
Members of the Cross-Sector Resiliency Forum briefed aides to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr about the group’s most recent work, according to a filing posted Friday in docket 11-60.
USTelecom reiterated its position opposing new pole attachment rules (see 2504140049) in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 17-84. As broadband providers “with operational experience both owning and attaching to poles, USTelecom members urge the Commission to refrain from imposing prescriptive new regulations that will create further disputes, confusion, and inefficiencies,” it said: “Micro-managing the pole attachment process will not speed USTelecom members’ or any broadband service providers’ deployments, whether those are through government funding programs or through massive private investment.”
The FCC Enforcement Bureau wants letters of intent by May 23 from entities interested in leading the industry consortium for robocall traceback efforts, said a public notice in Friday's Daily Digest. USTelecom's Industry Traceback Group currently holds the position. Comments on submitted letters of intent are due by June 11, replies June 18, in docket 20-22.
Better submarine cable network security starts with walling off untrusted vendors and adversary nations, trade groups and national security interests told the FCC in docket 24-523 this week. Many criticized the NPRM -- which proposes rules changes aimed at addressing national security and law enforcement threats to cables -- as creating more complexity and burdensome regulations and flying in the face of the FCC's "Delete, Delete, Delete" deregulatory agenda. Commissioners adopted the subsea cable NPRM unanimously in November (see 2411210006). The subsea cable industry has said it hoped the Trump administration would alleviate the particularly onerous regulatory burdens it faces (see 2502260042).