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# FBA Study Highlights One Permitting Rule as the Most Disruptive to Broadband Deployment
- URL: https://broadbandbreakfast.com/fba-study-highlights-one-permitting-rule-as-the-most-disruptive-to-broadband-deployment/
- Published: 2026-10-01T21:00:39.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T21:47:02.000Z
- Description: The FCC is considering preempting local permitting regulations
- Author: Jake Neenan
- Tags: Infrastructure, FBA, Cartesian, FCC, #with-siderail

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1, 2026 – ISPs often say local permitting rules can hold up projects. A new analysis commissioned by a broadband trade group says it found the most detrimental policy.

That would be fees charged per foot of fiber laid, according to the report.

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[The report](https://fiberbroadband.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/FBA-Wireline-Permitting-Study%5F9.26.pdf?ref=broadbandbreakfast.com), done by Cartesian for the Fiber Broadband Association, said federal regulators should ban those kinds of fees for broadband projects. The report also recommended capping other fees and a 120-day shot clock on local permit reviews.

Cartesian trawled FBA’s member survey, court filings, comments at the Federal Communications Commission, and government websites to find 100 examples of what it called egregious permitting practices that needed to be addressed by federal intervention.

The FCC is [currently considering](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/industry-local-governments-still-disagree-strongly-on-permitting/) whether to preempt certain local permitting policies to speed up wireline broadband deployments, a move strongly supported by ISPs and strongly opposed by local governments. [FBA said](https://fiberbroadband.org/resources/wireline-permitting-study-economic-impact-on-fiber-fba/?ref=broadbandbreakfast.com) it would be filing the study with the FCC for it to consider

[In comments](https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/26110077564/1?ref=broadbandbreakfast.com) last month, trade groups said most local permitting agencies were helpful — FBA found that ISPs were able to lay fiber to 11.8 million new homes and businesses in 2025 — but they wanted the FCC to stop lengthy reviews and excessive fees they said were derailing projects across the country.

Local government [officials told](https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/26110077417/1?ref=broadbandbreakfast.com) the FCC they “strenuously object” to the idea that they’re holding up broadband expansion, and said their reviews were necessary to maintain safe rights-of-way.

For its report, Cartesian started with a model fiber build that would reach 10,000 homes and require 100 route-miles of fiber. It then applied each of 12 permitting conditions and tried to gauge the effect they would have on the project's ultimate internal rate of return, a measure of its financial attractiveness.

Recurring right-of-way access fees charged per foot of conduit were by far the most detrimental to a project’s IRR, Cartesian said in its report, with the second most being one-time versions of the same fees. 

Projects can use miles of fiber, meaning even a small per-foot fee can become significant for larger projects. In its review of provider anecdotes, Cartesian found 13 instances of recurring or one-time fees charged per foot of fiber being laid, mostly from FBA member submissions or the FCC docket.

The group also found excessive delays, a year or more, to have a negative impact, enough to potentially end the business case for a project. 

Inspection and upfront permit fees, even ones the group defined as excessively high, were less likely to stop a build in its tracks, the report found.

In the FCC’s proposal on local permitting preemption, the agency said it wanted to limit permitting fees to those that were “a reasonable approximation of the government’s costs of managing the public rights-of-way in connection with a particular authorization.”

The agency said multiple provider examples of per-foot fees “raise serious concerns” about local permitting fees.

In joint comments, groups representing local governments told the FCC last month that limiting fees to direct costs would in some cases conflict with state laws requiring fair market compensation for private use of public property. They described the FCC’s proposal as “poorly accounting for the actual costs and burdens of right-of-way deployment borne by local governments.”

The House Commerce Committee passed along party lines a bill that would institute some of the changes the trade groups have asked for, but it hasn't yet cleared the full House.