ACA Connects Seeks Major Permitting Reforms in FCC's Wireless Deployment NOI
ACA Connects hopes to use the FCC's wide-reaching wireline deployment rules reform proceeding to pursue permitting reforms and stop local rate regulation efforts that Congress isn't currently tackling, President Grant Spellmeyer told reporters Wednesday. Brian Hurley, the group's senior vice president of legal and regulatory affairs, said that given the priority that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has put on speeding up deployment, ACA expects to see action in 2026 coming out of the wireline proceeding.
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Commissioners adopted the wireline notice of inquiry at their September meeting (see 2509300063). It asks about delays that providers face when trying to use state and local public rights-of-way for wireline telecom services and the fees that states and local governments charge for authorizations. It also seeks comment on state and local requirements that are de facto prohibitions on wireline telecom deployments or services.
ACA leadership told reporters that its focus for the proceeding is on streamlining permitting and lowering barriers to access public rights-of-way, preempting broadband price regulation and ensuring ways that providers can enforce their rights.
As ACA's member cable ISPs build out beyond their cable franchise turfs to provide telecom and broadband, they're usually welcome in new communities, Hurley said, though "that's not always the case." FCC action is needed for those times when the process breaks down, he said.
Spellmeyer said that over the past seven or so years, ACA members have expanded their broadband coverage by close to 50%, with most of the cost covered by private capital. The BEAD awards that are soon to follow emphasize the need for making deployment easier, he added.
Hurley said ACA will push in the proceeding for expedited timelines for application reviews as a route to streamlining permitting. Currently, state and local permitting authorities can sit on members' requests for access to rights-of-way for months, he noted, so ACA wants to see the FCC adopt a shot-clock requirement similar to what it has for wireless deployments.
Localities sometimes also charge extraneous or hidden fees for access, and ACA will push the FCC to affirm that wireline fees need to be cost-based and objectively reasonable, Hurley said. The group will call for guarantees that similarly situated providers are treated similarly. It hopes to see the FCC affirm that in-kind contributions, such as required fiber access for municipal buildings, count toward those fees, he said.
In addition, Hurley said, ACA will press the FCC for action against unreasonable deployment conditions or requirements, such as the agency affirming that just because a requirement has to do with managing a right-of-way, that doesn't automatically make it a legitimate and permitted form of right-of-way management. He said operators can face such conditions as having to deploy deeper underground than industry standards or needing to repave far beyond just the disturbed portion of a sidewalk.
Any FCC action in the wireline deployment proceeding also has to include a workable way for providers to enforce their rights other than filing a formal petition with the commission or going to court, Hurley said. Those options often aren't practical for small companies with fewer resources, and a win years down the road "becomes sort of a Pyrrhic victory." The expedited resolution of disputes between pole owners and attachers in the FCC's rapid broadband assessment team process could be a good model, Hurley added.
Spellmeyer said Congress likely will tackle energy permitting reform at some point, and that could open the door for activity beyond what the FCC has teed up in the NOI.