Brendan Carr Withdraws FCC's Bulk Billing Proposal

WASHINGTON, Jan. 27, 2025 – That’s one down.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr removed from circulation last week an item that would have sought comment on banning bulk billing arrangements between landlords and broadband providers.

Carr is expected to roll back or not enforce a number of consumer protection rules pursued by the Biden FCC. The bulk billing proposal was never made public but was circulated among staff by Jessica Rosenworcel, the Biden FCC chairwoman, in March 2024. 

“There is a lot of work ahead to reverse the last Administration’s costly regulatory overreach,” Carr said in a statement. “I am glad to take a step in the right direction by ending the FCC’s consideration of a Biden-era plan that would have artificially raised the cost of Internet service.”

The item targeted bulk billing agreements, in which providers and building owners, or sometimes home owners’ associations, reach deals to secure bulk service for tenants.

The agency said at the time that the move would “increase competition for communications service in these buildings by making it more profitable for competitive providers to deploy service in buildings where it is currently too expensive to serve consumers because tenants are required to take a certain provider’s service.”

It received wide opposition from ISPs as well as real estate groups, who argued the negotiated prices can be cheaper than what consumers would pay for individual plans.

The Bulk Broadband Alliance, a coalition including broadband and housing trade groups spun up to oppose the proposal, was pleased.

“The Bulk Broadband Alliance applauds Chairman Carr for his leadership in swiftly pulling from consideration the deeply flawed proposal to regulate bulk billing arrangements,” the group said in a statement. The group said the move “paves the way for even more Americans to benefit from these arrangements in the future,” as the market would be “free from the fear of unwarranted and disruptive regulation.”

The FCC approved rules in 2022 that prevent exclusive revenue sharing agreements between landlords and providers and require disclosure of exclusive marketing arrangements. Consumer advocacy groups supported going further with the bulk billing proposal, arguing that the agreements could be similarly anti-competitive by preventing other ISPs from entering a building.

“It’s a shame,” John Bergmayer, Public Knowledge’s legal director, said of the withdrawal. “The bulk billing ban was intended to make these rules more effective, by eliminating one of the ways that landlords, HOAs, and telecom and cable companies collaborate to bypass the intended effort of those rules, and require people to pay for internet service they don’t want or need.”