While fiber deployments hit record levels in 2025, the year also presented numerous problems, said Ash Brown, chair of the Fiber Broadband Association board, during the group's webinar Wednesday. Brown spoke with association CEO Gary Bolton, who agreed that 2025 wasn’t easy for the fiber industry. Both said fiber will be critical as AI becomes more a part of daily life.
AT&T has dropped its lawsuit against BBB National Programs' National Advertising Division (see 2510300031), which in turn retracted its claims against AT&T, they said in a joint statement Monday. NAD and AT&T “have amicably resolved their dispute,” they said. AT&T filed a lawsuit in October against the ad watchdog after it sent a cease and desist letter ordering the carrier to stop running ads about T-Mobile’s repeated violations of NAD rules on deceptive ads. NAD accused AT&T of violating agreements that restrict participants in its industry self-regulation efforts from making deceptive statements about NAD rulings. “BBB National Programs no longer takes that position and retracts its cease-and-desist letter in all respects,” NAD’s legal counsel said Friday in a letter to AT&T. The organization “recognizes that AT&T’s statements on T-Mobile were based on publicly available information published by BBB National Programs” and doesn’t oppose networks running AT&T’s commercials based on those statements, it said.
NTIA has approved North Carolina's BEAD final proposal, Gov. Josh Stein (D) said Monday. While the state was allocated $1.53 billion, its final proposal is for more than $300 million in deployment spending, he said. BEAD-funded projects should launch in mid-2026, he said, adding that $670 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding for broadband will bring connectivity to more than 250,000 locations by the end of next year.
The White House's executive order barring state regulation of AI (see 2512110068) isn't likely to stop states, Goodwin AI and data lawyers wrote last week. The order directs federal agencies to condition access to discretionary grants on a state's commitment not to enforce "onerous" AI laws, but it gives scant guidance on which state laws are onerous and conflict with the administration's policy principles, the lawyers argued.
California's final BEAD proposal, submitted Friday to NTIA, reaches more than 340,000 eligible locations -- more than any other state's plan -- said Maria Ellis, director of broadband initiatives for the California Public Utilities Commission, at the agency's meeting Thursday. CPUC voted unanimously to approve the submission, and Ellis said deployment work could start in the second half of 2026.
The Congressional Review Act (CRA) doesn't let the Commerce Department unilaterally change BEAD's rules, as it did in its June 6 restructuring policy notice, without running it past Congress, the Government Accountability Office said Wednesday. But that decision may not ultimately change the course and momentum of the program, broadband policy experts said. NTIA didn't comment.
The Better Business Bureau National Programs’ National Advertising Division (NAD) is referring T-Mobile to the FTC and state officials for declining to participate in NAD’s inquiry into advertising claims about the carrier's 5G capacity. “T-Mobile informed NAD that although T-Mobile is a strong supporter of the NAD self-regulatory process, it would decline to participate in this inquiry in light of a pending federal lawsuit brought by AT&T against BBB National Programs,” an NAD release said Wednesday. AT&T sued NAD in October after the agency sought to block the carrier from running ads about T-Mobile’s past violations of NAD rules against deceptive advertising (see 2510300031). T-Mobile and AT&T didn’t comment Wednesday. “Because T-Mobile declined to participate, NAD will refer this matter to the FTC and state Attorneys General,” said the release. “NAD will also refer the matter to the platforms on which the advertising appeared and with which NAD has a reporting relationship.”
The uncertainty around the fate of BEAD non-deployment funds keeps Penn State telecommunications professor Chris Ali up at night, he said Wednesday during an online Q&A with Fiber Broadband Association CEO Gary Bolton. “I don’t like it that these funds are being used, a little bit, as ransom in certain situations,” Ali said. Those funds are needed to “fill the gaps” in BEAD funding and should be used for affordability programs and workforce training, he said. “I love, love, love to see more states, more entities fight tooth and nail to keep a hold on this money that is legally and morally theirs.” A host of state legislators from all over the U.S. urged NTIA to release the funds in a letter Tuesday (see 2512090057).
The FCC should retain its current citizens broadband radio service (CBRS) rules, said Cambium Networks in a letter posted in docket 17-258 Monday. “Increases to permitted power in some or all of the band would undermine deployments that are providing vital services to American communities.” Reallocating portions of the CBRS band or increasing the maximum power would require Cambium to replace its equipment “at significant operator and consumer expense,” the company said. “Further, permitting significantly higher power levels would lead to waste in [the] BEAD program, as existing CBRS equipment supporting fixed wireless BEAD deployments would need to be replaced and such costs have not been included in BEAD,” Cambium added. “It is inconsistent for the federal government to make billions of dollars available for broadband deployment and expect recipients to invest their own capital, at the same time that it calls into question the usefulness of the most relied-upon spectrum for broadband deployment.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters Tuesday that a compromise version of the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act still under negotiation won’t include language to preempt states’ AI laws, amid ongoing concerns about proposals tying such a pause to funding from the $42.5 billion BEAD broadband program. President Donald Trump has been eyeing a draft executive order that could force NTIA to deny non-deployment BEAD funding to states with AI laws that the administration deems overly onerous (see 2511200057).