Jonathan Spalter, the President and CEO of USTelecom wrote an open letter to the White House and Congress with its wish list for government action in  2025. USTelecom is the trade association and lobbying arm representing the biggest telcos and cable companies. The most interesting thing about the list is that most smaller ISPs will agree with almost everything on it.

Champion Networks of the Future. This asks the federal government to make it easier to tear down copper telco networks. It’s an interesting request because, for the most part, the big telcos are already doing this. They are really asking the federal government to intercede in states that want to see customers provided with an alternative option for basic communications before they lose a copper telephone line.

Secure and Reform Universal Service. USTelecom recognizes that the existence of the Universal Service Fund is in jeopardy due to open court cases that could kill or maim it. This is a request for Congress to pass legislation that reinforces the mission of the USF and that also fixes the broken funding mechanism that gets funding today from telephone services.

Put the Pedal to the Metal on Broadband Deployment. This is support for moving quickly with BEAD grants while relaxing some of the BEAD rules such as requiring low rates. The big ISPs assume a lot of this funding will go to them. Some of the reforms that USTelecom wants can be done by NTIA, but others will need action by Congress.

Review All Legacy Regulations. USTelecom asks to eliminate outdated regulations and reporting, a reasonable request. Unfortunately, some of the silliest outdated requirements come from Congress and legislation is needed to kill some old requirements.

Break the Federal Permitting Log Jam. This has been on the list for twenty years. Getting permits on federal land can be nearly impossible. There has been announcements from the last several White Houses that supposedly addressed the issue but that haven’t resulted in any meaningful change.

Model Efficient, Effective Cybersecurity. This is the hardest wish to accomplish and undoubtedly comes from the recent Chinese hacking of our telecom networks. I have to wonder if this is too big of a challenge to fix with centralized government edicts – and if telcos really want the government telling them how to handle cybersecurity. But it definitely must be addressed.

What’s interesting is what is not on this list. There is no request to eliminate heavy FCC regulation, because the big telcos already know they now have a friendly FCC.