The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) have had a busy year on numerous fronts, but perhaps none more important than their work on broadband deployment and adoption. At the FCC, Chairman Brendan Carr made his “Build America” agenda a key agency priority, while the NTIA implemented a variety of reforms to the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program to ensure Americans have access to high-speed broadband.
With 2025 drawing to a close, this post will offer a roundup of the year’s key developments in telecom policy and take a look at what may be coming in 2026.
In re: Delete, Delete, Delete
Pitched as part of the Trump administration’s broader push for deregulatory reform, Carr’s “Delete, Delete, Delete” initiative targeted FCC regulations that either overly burden businesses or simply no longer provide value. The FCC’s work has already begun to bear fruit. Overall, the commission has deleted 1,221 agency rules and requirements, amounting to 300 pages of regulations, and closed 2,000 inactive proceedings
Among the rules our colleagues at the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) targeted for elimination were Section 706 reporting requirements and E-Rate for school buses, while also recommending simplification of broadband nutrition labels and the procedural requirements for carriers seeking to discontinue legacy copper lines, as well as streamlining exemptions and reducing oversight of cell-siting projects.
In addition to removing outdated regulations and rules, the FCC has also initiated various broadband-specific rulemaking to reduce burdens on providers and ensure that taxpayer dollars support connecting unserved Americans. Most notably, the commission has, as we hoped, proposed rules modifications to simplify broadband nutrition labels and to ease copper retirement, and as well as to facilitate a successful transition to all-Internet Protocol interconnection. The agency also issued a declaratory ruling clarifying that the provision of Wi-Fi on school buses is ineligible for E-Rate funding.
Rocketing Up in Space
The FCC also made space for space policy. Specifically, the commission launched major proceedings to modernize the FCC’s licensing processes to include expedited licensing and other simplifications, as well as to facilitate more intensive use of upper-microwave spectrum.
FCC Space Bureau Chief Jay Schwarz highlighted both proposals at a November symposium highlighting the bipartisan LEO Policy Working Group’s report on low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellites. But as outlined in the report, much still needs to be done, such as further developing a spectrum pipeline for LEO services; monitoring consolidation for potentially anticompetitive conduct, without preventing efficiency-enhancing integration; and reducing barriers to adoption that could limit LEOs’ contributions to bridging the digital divide.
The commission and the administration should also look to address potential international barriers to the development of U.S. space capabilities. ICLE highlighted some of these concerns in comments both to the European Commission and the U.S. Commerce Department and U.S. State Department, arguing that the proposed EU Space Act would function as a nontariff barrier under World Trade Organization rules. The act’s proposed structure would impose disproportionate burdens on foreign actors providing services in the EU market, thus undercutting the stated objective of establishing a competitive and open single market.
As the LEO Policy Working Group’s report highlights, LEO and satellite broadband more generally provide a valuable alternative for consumers, especially in rural areas, where the cost to deploy fixed services often outweighs potential returns. A healthy broadband ecosystem must incorporate satellite services, and attention to these issues at the FCC will be critical to launch and grow this sector.
Infrastructure Reforms
Carr has long promoted permitting and zoning reforms to streamline broadband deployment, particularly for small cells. This final prong of his “Build America” agenda also saw progress this year, with work to streamline the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review process. The commission focused primarily on defining “major federal action” (MFA) to limit the types of FCC activities that trigger NEPA review, including a tentative conclusion that geographic area licensing does not constitute an MFA. It also considered restructuring categorical exclusions to list specific excluded actions, rather than using a broad catchall exclusion.
Congress, for its part, explored various infrastructure-reform bills targeting the permitting process and easing barriers to broadband deployment. Specifically, the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced 15 bills relating to streamlining permitting processes for broadband deployment.
BEAD Reforms to Connect Unserved Americans
Commerce Secretary Harold Lutnick and NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth initiated major changes to the rollout of the BEAD program. The Biden administration’s approach to BEAD had been widely criticized for red tape and unnecessary conditions that ran counter to the program’s goals of providing unserved Americans with access to broadband.
In a June public notice, the NTIA modified the BEAD program’s requirements to end prioritization of fiber projects in favor of a technology-neutral approach, much like the one Eric Fruits and Ben Sperry previously advocated. In addition, the NTIA eliminated various nonstatutory requirements related to labor, employment, and workforce development, as well as network neutrality, local coordination, and climate-resilience requirements that frustrated the program’s purpose. These changes should result in more Americans getting connected at a lower cost.
Big Beautiful Spectrum
Perhaps the biggest news in the telecommunications world was the reauthorization of the FCC’s spectrum auction authority in the “Big Beautiful Bill.” And the FCC has wasted little time in taking action, issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking to initiate the process of designing an auction for the upper C-band.
Reauthorization of auction authority is, however, just the beginning. The administration has a long road ahead to find suitable spectrum to auction and to design service rules that minimize interference while maximizing utility.
Ghosts of Regulators Past
Some of the most significant developments in broadband policy didn’t occur at the agencies, but in the courts. After a lengthy legal back and forth, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the Biden administration’s Title II reclassification of broadband—seemingly settling the question of “net neutrality” once and for all.
For those not steeped in the net-neutrality debates, the core question is whether broadband is a Title II “telecommunications services,” which would allow the FCC to impose stringent utility-style obligations designed for the monopoly era of the Bell System. No longer required to defer to the FCC’s interpretation, the 6th Circuit determined that broadband only offers a Title I “information services” and can only be subject to a lighter regulatory touch.
The 6th Circuit decision was functionally a win for the Trump administration, but moving forward, Congress may need to update the Communications Act to classify all telecommunications services under a unified Title I framework. Today, voice traffic routinely travels via Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and traditional copper networks are being rapidly retired in favor of fiber and wireless infrastructure. Treating the underlying broadband infrastructure as a “common carrier” telephone service ignores this technological integration. A uniform approach would recognize that all modern communications involve information processing and capabilities beyond “mere transmission.”
While the net-neutrality question was effectively resolved, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has yet to rule on the other major broadband issue: digital discrimination. In last year’s roundup, Eric Fruits identified the FCC’s implementation of digital-discrimination rules and the ongoing legal challenges to those rules as a key issue for 2025. A year later, the question remains unsettled.
Implementation of the discrimination rules is a prime example of regulatory expansion that could create significant market distortions. Mandated by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the rules were intended to prevent discrimination in broadband deployment. But the Biden-era FCC adopted a “disparate impact” standard, allowing for liability based on statistical disparities, regardless of discriminatory intent.
Finally, the FCC may have to rethink its ongoing enforcement efforts. As ICLE cautioned in comments to the “Delete, Delete, Delete” proceeding, “the Supreme Court’s opinion in SEC v. Jarkesy may upend the FCC’s enforcement processes.”
In April 2025, the 5th U.S. Court of Appeals vacated a $57 million forfeiture order the FCC had imposed on AT&T for allegedly mishandling customer-location data, holding that the FCC’s in-house adjudication process violated AT&T’s Seventh Amendment rights. Relying on Jarkesy, the court determined that the civil penalties were “legal in nature” (intended to punish or deter) and thus required a jury trial in an Article III court, rather than an administrative proceeding. While the FCC has filed a petition for review, the decision could limit the agency’s ability to use civil penalties as an enforcement measure.
Looking Forward
The FCC and the NTIA both made significant progress this year, which could lead to even more action in 2026. Due to Administrative Procedure Act rules, the FCC’s actions must go through public notice-and-comment rulemaking. In practical terms, this means most of the actions discussed above are still in the works, and the FCC hasn’t issued formal rules and regulations.
Next year, expect the commission to finalize many of these proceedings—including NEPA reforms, copper retirement and IP transitions, satellite spectrum and permitting, and further deletion of outdated rules and regulations. The 8th Circuit may also rule on the legality of the FCC’s digital-discrimination rules, likely leading to further action from the commission.
For the NTIA’s part, it has to date approved BEAD proposals from 26 states. The updated BEAD rules should result in more taxpayer dollars going to connecting unserved and underserved Americans. One can hope that broadband providers can get shovels in the ground to get these projects up and running in the year ahead.
Much of the work done in 2025 was setting up reforms; 2026 will be the year to implement them.
