Cities Oppose FCC Inquiry into Speeding Wireline Permitting

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17, 2025 – An inquiry into how to accelerate wireline broadband deployments from the Federal Communications Commission has drawn sharply diverging responses from cities, electric cooperatives, and broadband industry groups.

Cities like Austin, Texas, have blasted the effort as “a solution in search of a problem,” while broadband association USTelecom described months-long delays, six-figure permit fees, and review processes that can stall for months which they say jeopardize forthcoming builds under the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program. 

At issue was whether the FCC should use its authority under Section 253 of the Communications Act to declare certain local permitting practices inherently prohibitive, and replace them with nationwide timelines, fee standards, and potentially broad preemption of state and local requirements.

In a filing shared with Broadband Breakfast ahead of its Tuesday submission, USTelecom, representing major national broadband carriers including AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen, urged the FCC to impose national review timelines: A 60 day shot clock for standard wireline permits and 90 days for complex or multi-jurisdictional builds.

The association argued that several states already have statutory deadlines that “are routinely ignored,” pointing to one state where a 60 day shot clock “has never once been met,” leaving broadband providers to face open ended delays.

The group also highlighted examples of excessive local requirements, including a Minnesota city demanding more than $90,000 in fees to lay a single block of fiber, and a Florida locality that stretched routine construction reviews to 18 months, even requiring a $250,000 bond unrelated to state law.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce echoed those concerns and urged the FCC in comments Monday to prohibit state-imposed requirements, including “any form of rate regulation or other utility-style regulations for broadband.” The Chamber wrote that municipal processes “threaten the success of BEAD,” and that “the Commission must act expeditiously” to ensure awards can be built on time. 

An electric cooperative voiced similar frustrations. 

A Michigan-based electric co-op, Midwest Energy & Communications, told the FCC Friday it was in the process of submitting 150 permit applications across multiple Monroe County agencies to construct just 68 miles of fiber. 

The county allows only two applications to be pending from MEC at once, requires hard-copy submissions, and often demands multiple rounds of mailed revisions – delays that have pushed the cooperative’s planned build under the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund from 2025 into 2026. 

“As of the date of this filing, approximately 40 percent of the 45 submitted applications have been approved, and 36 have required revisions,” MEC’s filing states, warning that without federal timelines its ability to meet federal deployment obligations was at serious risk.

So far, two cities have shot back

City representatives in Austin, Texas and San José, California responded with a unified message: wireline deployments are too complex, and local conditions too varied, for standardized federal timelines.

Austin, in comments signed by City Manager T.C. Broadnax, told the FCC Friday its inquiry rests on a “faulty premise,” noting that its permitting system has supported widespread wireline competition and that urban areas like Austin will receive almost no BEAD funds. Preempting their permitting authority, the city said, would shift costs to local taxpayers and undercut public safety responsibilities.

“Preempting long standing public rights-of-way fees and management in urban areas such as Austin will not benefit federal taxpayers, since little if any BEAD funds will be spent in urban areas,” the city’s filing states.

San José told the FCC rigid timelines would be “impractical” and unsafe because trenching-based wireline projects require engineering reviews, traffic plans, environmental checks, and coordination with water, sewer, and electric utilities. 

The city also argued that accelerated timelines have not historically driven investment: despite having one of the nation’s most streamlined wireless permitting systems, fewer than half of planned deployments were ever built because carriers reprioritized capital spending.

“The FCC’s 2018 small cell order and subsequent state legislations for wireless deployments have not demonstrably influenced industry investment decisions or universal service outcomes,” the city’s filing states. “In urban areas such as San José, providers continue to prioritize deployment in affluent areas, leaving unserved and underserved communities behind even when public funds are available.”

The debate also comes alongside the FCC’s parallel effort to streamline wireless deployments, a move that has sparked similar backlash from local officials. 

On Tuesday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will take up multiple permitting reform bills, part of a growing campaign in Washington to accelerate approvals as billions in federal broadband funding move toward construction.