FCC Moves Forward With Broadband Deployment Inquiry
The agency also proposed reducing price regulations on legacy business data services.
WASHINGTON, August 6, 2025 – The Federal Communications Commission is moving ahead with its inquiry into the status of broadband deployment in the United States.
The agency adopted the item Tuesday before its Thursday meeting, along with a proposal to eliminate some rules on legacy business data services and an update to the agency’s disaster reporting system. An FCC spokesperson said each was approved unanimously.
The deployment inquiry “takes a technology neutral and holistic approach to evaluate the state of broadband availability and progress in closing the digital divide in the United States,” the agency said in a release. “The Commission seeks objective data and other evidence reflecting the state of broadband deployment and availability.”
The agency conducts the review annually under section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which tasks the agency with assessing whether broadband “is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion.” Last year, under Democratic Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, the agency assessed affordability and adoption as part of the report, sections the newly adopted notice of inquiry would propose to scrap.
Consumer advocates had urged the agency against the move, which they said “invites self-congratulations for incremental progress which will ultimately harm the millions of Americans in rural areas and low-income communities who still, in 2025, are unable to access broadband due to deployment, affordability, or other adoption barriers.”
A public draft of the notice said the planned return to the incremental deployment progress standard was what the language of the law required. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, a commissioner at the time, dissented from the 2024 report in part because of the issue.
The 2024 report also came to a negative conclusion, finding broadband was not being deployed in a “reasonable and timely fashion” because of the 7 percent of American households FCC said still lacked access to broadband connectivity.
Carr said in his dissent that the incremental progress since the last report should have led to a positive finding. A negative conclusion directs the agency to “take immediate actions to accelerate deployment,” which he said would make it easier to institute net neutrality rules opposed by Republicans and the broadband industry.
The FCC did reinstitute net neutrality policies last year, but telecom industry groups challenged them in court and got the rules tossed. Carr is not expected to appeal the decision, but consumer groups that were also parties to the case have until Friday to ask the Supreme Court to weigh in.
Carr also opposed the 100 * 20 megabits per second speed benchmark that the agency used for the first time to define broadband. The public draft of the notice would ultimately propose to stick with that standard, but would seek input on whether that’s the right move.
Broadband grant programs run by the FCC and other agencies typically require 100 * 20 Mbps speeds to qualify for funding.
Business data services
The agency also unanimously moved to propose eliminating some pricing regulations on legacy, lower-capacity business data services. The FCC has already removed price caps and filing requirements for those providers in certain instances, either categorically based on technology or through local market competition tests.
“Because incumbent local exchange carriers historically held local monopolies on circuit-switched telephone service, the Commission has long regulated legacy business data services’ rates, terms, and conditions of service,” the agency said in a release. “As this market has become more competitive, this approach distorts incentives for private operators to invest in network upgrades and competitively price services.”
A public draft of the item proposed a 6-month rate freeze, after which providers would not be subject to rate regulations.
Member discussion