Sunday, September 6, 2026
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Telecom Tweets of the Week: FCC on a roll(back)

by Kelly Hill
written by Kelly Hill Share
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Ajit Pai’s Federal Communications Commission is hitting its stride in regulatory rollbacks. On the agenda of this week’s meeting: axing a 40-year-old rule on media ownership that prevented a single company from owning multiple types of media outlets in a single market; targeting illegal robocalls to consumers; making changes to the Lifeline program for subsidizing broadband use for low-income households; lifting some regulations on utility pole siting in order to speed up small cell deployments; and looking at making more spectrum available for “5G”. Some of those items gained bipartisan support, while others decidedly did not.

The media ownership change is a hot-button issue, which supporters see this as media ownership modernization that reflects the current landscape, while foes call it a boon for mega-media consolidation and companies like conservative giant Sinclair Broadcasting. The two Democrats on the commission opposed the rollback of the rule.

Changes to the Lifeline program for subsidized broadband services also drew Democrats’ ire, as the FCC Republican pushed more of that responsibility toward the states as well as supported limiting overall funding for the program.

https://twitter.com/JRosenworcel/status/931218311496589312

In terms of the FCC’s approach to fighting robocalls, which Pai has made a priority, the move allows phone companies to “proactively block calls that are likely to be fraudulent because they come from certain types of phone numbers.” Clyburn joined the GOP majority in approving the new rule, and Rosenworcel approved in part and dissented in part.

https://twitter.com/JRosenworcel/status/931185815346130944

The FCC drew industry praise — and a full five votes in favor — for a vote to streamline deployment rules for small cell infrastructure, what Pai called “a first step in streamlining the rules for wireless infrastructure deployment.” The new rule excludes utility poles from most historic preservation rules when a pole is being replaced by a basically identical pole replacement.

The FCC also made a mostly-unanimous call to advance spectrum availability for “5G” technology, with Rosenworcel joining the Republican majority to open up another 1700 megahertz of millimeter wave for terrestrial wireless services. Clyburn dissented in part, though, because she disagreed with the commission’s decision to not limit the amount of the spectrum that could be accumulated by a single entity. The Competitive Carriers Association has asked the FCC to ensure that millimeter wave spectrum can’t be hoarded by larger carriers.

Next up: the net neutrality vote is on the agenda for the FCC’s December meeting.

Elsewhere on Twitter, things to keep in mind as Black Friday and Thanksgiving approach:

And T-Mobile US CEO John Legere shares his secret ingredient for slow-cooker use.

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Kelly Hill reports on network test and measurement, AI infrastructure and regulatory issues, including spectrum, for RCR Wireless News. She began covering the wireless industry in 2005, focusing on carriers and MVNOs, then took a few years’ hiatus and returned to RCR Wireless News to write about heterogeneous networks (remember those?) and network infrastructure. Kelly is an Ohio native with a masters degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, where she focused on science writing and multimedia. She has written for the San Francisco Chronicle, The Oregonian and The Canton Repository. She lives in northern Virginia, not far from Data Center Alley.

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