We’re less than eight months into the new administration, and when considering that short amount of time, there has been an unprecedented amount of deregulation coming out of the federal government related to broadband and telecom issues. Regulatory changes aren’t just coming from the FCC, but also from the White House, NTIA, Congress, and other agencies like the FTC.

The trend to deregulate under a Republican administration is not a surprise. For example, we heard a lot of deregulation rhetoric when FCC Chairman Ajit Pai took over the FCC. His FCC tackled deregulation, but at a much slower pace than the current administration. Brendan Carr hit the ground running in this new administration when he was named as Chairman soon after the inauguration.

Following is a list I made of deregulatory changes I can recall that have happened this year, and I’m sure I’ve missed a few.

• Chairman Carr came in with the intentions of killing Title II regulation of broadband and net neutrality, but was spared the effort when, in early January, the U.S Court of Appeals for the 6^th Circuit struck down the regulations that had been adopted by the previous FCC.
• The FCC’s signature deregulatory thrust has been labeled as Delete, Delete, Delete, which is a streamlined way to eliminate obsolete regulations. In practice, it appears that the FCC has decided to take shortcuts and has shortened the timeline or totally eliminated the ability for public comments before regulations are eliminated.
• The FCC canceled rules that allowed the Universal Fund to pay for WiFi on school buses. The FCC is currently killing rules that would allow the USF to fund hotspots for lending in libraries.
• The FCC made it easier for telcos to retire copper by putting a 2-year moratorium on public notices of upcoming copper retirements. The FCC is now working to make the temporary rules permanent.
• In perhaps the biggest change, the White House ordered NTIA to cease the implementation of the $2.75 billion Digital Equity Act that was to be used for teaching people how to use computers, making sure every household had a computer or tablet, and promoting subscription to home broadband.
• NTIA weakened the $42.5 billion BEAD grant program. The agency:
  • Watered down the assumed preference for fiber and tried to give more funding to alternative technologies like satellite.
  • Eliminated the mandate that anybody building a BEAD network had to have at least one broadband product that would be affordable for low-income households.
  • Weakened labor requirements and got rid of the preference for prevailing and union wages.
  • Perhaps the biggest long-term impact of the BEAD changes is that NTIA has seemingly defined satellite broadband as a legitimate broadband option for homes, meaning most homes can now be said to have a broadband option.
  • It looks like all of these changes might mean a $10-$20 billion reduction from the expected $42.5 billion program.
• The FCC stopped the implementation of lower rates for telephone and video calls in jails and prisons.
• The Federal Trade Commission halted the implementation of Click to Cancel, which would have mandated that any company that lets a customer subscribe online must make it just as easy to cancel service online.
• While not specifically deregulation, the FCC has ignored its own timeline for kicking off the 5G for Rural America Fund, which is supposed to bring a lot more cell towers to rural America.
• Courts continue to weaken the FCC’s authority. Several rulings in 2024 weakened the FCC. For example, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo overturned the Chevron Doctrine, which brings into question the ability of the FCC to enact laws that were not specifically mandated by Congress. This year, McLaughlin Chiropractic v. McKesson Corp gave District Courts more leeway to disagree with rulings made by federal agencies like the FCC.

To be fair, there are some new regulations to go along with the deregulation effort:

• The FCC adopted some new regulations for poles related mostly to how pole owners must react to large orders for getting onto poles.
• Congress reinstituted the spectrum auction for the FCC. However, that new law may reclaim some WiFi and CBRS spectrum for auction, which is key for rural and home broadband.
• Tariffs on most imported goods have increased the cost of building broadband networks, particularly for electronics.
• The FCC is suddenly opining on the content on network television and has threatened the broadcast licenses of the large broadcasters.

I couldn’t decide how to categorize the recent issue where the FCC said it was going to examine and try to kill any state regulation of AI. Should that be categorized as more deregulation, or an increase in federal regulation?

This is a huge number of changes for only an eight-month period, and I have to wonder how far the deregulation effort will go over the next few years.