Competitive Carriers Challenge 5G Fund Order

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14, 2025 – A mobile carrier trade group is asking judges to toss out a planned $9 billion program to expand rural 5G coverage.

The Competitive Carriers Association, which represents regional and national wireless carriers, filed a petition for review in the D.C. Circuit on Feb. 6 challenging the Federal Communications Commission’s 5G Fund for Rural America. The group said, among other things, the speed threshold the agency used to determine eligibility was too low and that the entire program should be put on hold until another subsidy program is further along.

The Rural Wireless Association and another group of regional mobile providers have pending challenges to the fund at the agency level, filing petitions asking the FCC to reconsider its rules on largely the same grounds. Judges usually let legal challenges proceed after agency-level proceedings are resolved.