FCC Expected to Broaden 'Delete' Efforts in 2026

Carr and his chief of staff Scott Delacourt said the agency’s pursuit of items in the "Delete, Delete, Delete" docket would intensify in 2026. Those efforts will be “targeted individual proceedings” aimed at “more substantive” items than the FCC’s direct final rule (DFR) orders have been, Carr said.

Speaking on a separate panel, Delacourt said the DFR process largely targeted outdated rules that don’t have constituencies, but the rules that the agency will go after in 2026 will be different. The FCC won’t be able to use the DFR process on “the more substantive rules” that have been raised in filings in the Delete docket, he said. “There’s significant equities on both sides there, and we’ll have to go through traditional [Administrative Procedure Act] procedures.” Delacourt said that to his knowledge the FCC has yet to receive a significant comment challenging the deletion of a rule targeted by the DFR process.

The FCC in 2026 will also keep up the “cadence” it showed with its very full open meeting in November, which had nine agenda items, Delacourt said. The agency will be ready for “targets of opportunity” as well, he said. “We don’t control the transactions that are before us, but they present us with opportunities to make policy.”

In a panel on telecom mergers later Wednesday, analysts and attorneys said there are more transactions brewing in the industry now. “It’s the most active I’ve ever seen,” said Raymond James analyst Ric Prentiss.

During his Q&A, Carr spoke about his willingness to use his “bully pulpit” to get results. Past FCCs have acted as though the regulatory process was the only way to get things done, he said, but he disagrees. Making companies aware that the FCC is scrutinizing them can also be effective, he said. It can lead to results “if you go to people and say, ‘Listen, you’re interconnecting with something that’s on the FCC’s covered list. Do you intend to keep doing that?’”

Carr also said the most surprising thing about the job of FCC chairman is the breadth of issues involved. “As a commissioner, you get to pick and choose your battles and put all your resources behind one thing. It is literally impossible to do that when you’re the chair."

PLI Notebook

NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth said during a Q&A with former FCC Commissioner Rob McDowell that NTIA doesn’t yet have final guidance on state savings from the BEAD program. “We didn’t do all this work reforming the program just to waste this leftover money.” NTIA’s eventual guidelines will look to prevent wasteful spending or spending that crowds out private investment in innovation, she said. “Nothing is set in stone yet.”

Many companies in the telecom arena are seeking to merge, but the regulatory receptiveness to such deals is still unclear, said analysts and attorneys during a panel on transactions. “I don’t recall a time as frothy as this,” said Latham & Watkins attorney Matthew Brill.

David Gibber, chief legal officer at Sinclair -- which is pursuing a deal with E.W. Scripps -- said companies seeking transaction approval under the current administration need to hire lobbyists and be aware of what's happening throughout Washington, not just at DOJ and the FCC. Deals are being done “from the top down” and require “connections with the administration,” he said.

The rush to deal is likely due to a combination of pent-up demand and a perception that the administration is amenable to mergers, said Alpina Capital’s Scott Soden. Brill added that investors shouldn’t depend on the idea that the current administration will rubber-stamp deals. The leaders of the DOJ and FTC “are still going to be rigorous” and “look hard at deals that present competition issues.” Though the FCC has signaled a willingness to deregulate and ax broadcast-ownership rules, deals still need to get through DOJ, the states and the courts, Brill said.