Telecommunications Providers Struggle to Meet May Rip-and-Replace Deadline
Carriers worry permitting delays and labor shortages could lead to connectivity loss in rural communities.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 17, 2026 – The Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) said its members can’t meet the May 2026 Rip-and-Replace program deadline, citing permitting delays, supply chain constraints and labor shortages.
In a Feb. 10 meeting with CCA representatives and Callie Coker, the legal advisor to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, the CCA said because of the deadline’s infeasibility, rural and hard-to-serve communities may face service disruptions and connectivity loss.
“More broadly, premature project termination would undermine the national security and connectivity objectives Congress sought to achieve when it fully funded the Reimbursement Program,” said Angela Simpson, CCA senior vice president and general counsel.
Simpson noted that CCA members cannot meet the May deadline “due to circumstances beyond their control,” pointing to obstacles including permitting amid the federal government shutdown and labor shortages due to the high demand for skilled workers in data center construction and BEAD construction.
CCA members said these challenges have been consistently documented and relayed to the FCC, which was apparent in the FCC’s December 2025 report. This report noted the program’s encountered challenges which matched the CCA’s, also including labor shortages, supply chain delays, lack of funding, etc.
The FCC report also reported that only 13 out of 126 approved applications have been completed, making progress slower than initially anticipated.
Participants argued that overly restrictive reimbursement rules—particularly limits on reimbursing consultant costs—are slowing payments and making projects more expensive and harder to finish.
is that some companies will need beyond the May 2026 deadline to complete their work under the program.
The group emphasized companies had flagged obstacles in their quarterly reports. In the agency’s report it gives some analysis of those reports in the “Challenges Encountered” section, which would be good to include. It also says that of the 126 approved applications, companies had fully completed 21 percent.
Member discussion