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  "description": "The order eliminating 386 wireline rules is scheduled to take effect June 15.",
  "path": "/california-regulators-oppose-fcc-wireline-deregulation-order/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-14T20:00:11.000Z",
  "site": "https://broadbandbreakfast.com",
  "tags": [
    "FCC rulemaking",
    "‘Delete, Delete, Delete’ proceeding",
    "in May 6 comments",
    "on April 16",
    "separate filing",
    "concerns with the process",
    "next phase"
  ],
  "textContent": "WASHINGTON, May 14, 2026 – A Federal Communications Commission effort to scrap nearly 400 wireline rules drew criticism last week, with opponents warning it could weaken oversight of rural broadband subsidies.\n\nThe FCC rulemaking removing 386 wireline-related requirements was carried out under the agency’s ‘Delete, Delete, Delete’ proceeding, a direct final rule initiative targeting regulations the FCC says are obsolete, duplicative or no longer used in practice.\n\nHowever, California regulators said some of the targeted rules remain critical to oversight of state rural broadband subsidy programs, warning in May 6 comments that eliminating some financial reporting requirements would make it harder to verify how carriers allocate costs and revenues.\n\nThe FCC’s direct final rule proposing to eliminate the wireline requirements was adopted Sept. 30, published in the Federal Register on April 16, and scheduled to take effect June 15 unless the FCC receives significant adverse comment.\n\nThe California Public Utilities Commission said some of the reporting requirements slated for deletion provide accounting and revenue allocation data used in rate cases involving small incumbent carriers receiving California High Cost Fund-A support.\n\nThe reports help regulators evaluate how carriers allocate costs and revenues between regulated telephone operations and nonregulated services, including broadband.\n\n“Eliminating these reports would impair the CPUC’s regulatory review of ratemaking issues,” attorneys for the CPUC wrote.\n\nThe CPUC warned that, without the reports, intrastate revenues could be understated and operating expenses overstated, potentially increasing subsidy payments to small carriers, which “create[s] a concern that [ratepayer] subsidized infrastructure could be used to generate private, unregulated profits.”\n\nCPUC added that no alternative reporting source provides the same level of detail contained in the FCC rules targeted for elimination.\n\nNine of the 10 carriers receiving CHCF-A support provide broadband through ISP affiliates using facilities subsidized by the state program, according to the filing.\n\nThe CPUC said deleting the FCC reports would make it harder to verify broadband revenues and determine whether support levels are excessive.\n\n###  _Policy group questions process_\n\nA separate filing from the Main Street Foundation’s Center for Regulatory Analysis and Engagement broadly backed the FCC’s effort to remove obsolete wireline regulations.\n\nBut the group also cautioned against using direct final rules for substantive policy changes, saying major revisions should still go through standard notice-and-comment procedures.\n\nA nonprofit policy and research project, CRAE advocates for “a disciplined, commonsense perspective to the regulatory process” grounded in economic analysis and the interests of small businesses and working families.\n\nMany of the targeted provisions, the group said, appear tied to outdated technologies, expired transition systems, and legacy tariff structures that no longer reflect modern communications markets.\n\nThe organization argued retrospective review can reduce legal complexity, compliance uncertainty, and administrative costs, particularly for smaller entities with limited compliance resources.\n\n### _FCC commissioners split on rule-cutting process_\n\nAdopting the proposal in September, FCC Chairman **Brendan Carr** said the rule would eliminate about 70,000 words, 158 pages, and 803 rules and requirements from the FCC’s books.\n\n“We’re about halfway through the deadwood stage of our _Delete_ campaign,” Carr said at the time. “In this stage, we have been scrapping rules that have sat on the books for a long time that either were overturned by courts or just very plainly have been overtaken by events.”\n\nStill, FCC Commissioner **Anna Gomez** dissented citing concerns with the process.\n\n“The procedures used today to erase rules… were put in place without seeking public comment on appropriate processes and guardrails,” Gomez said. “I cannot support the elimination of substantive rules pursuant to these procedures.”\n\nThe FCC said the rules will take effect unless the agency receives significant adverse comments within 20 days of Federal Register publication. The proceeding drew only two filings.\n\nA monthly initiative since Carr took over the agency, the next phase of the FCC’s _‘Delete, Delete, Delete’_ proceeding is expected to target Broadband Data Collection rules, and is scheduled for a vote at the FCC’s open commission meeting on May 20.",
  "title": "California Regulators Oppose FCC Wireline Deregulation Order",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-22T21:47:10.726Z"
}