September 22, 2026
New Agri-Pulse op-ed and USTelecom FCC filing highlight how permitting delays, excessive fees and red tape are holding back broadband deployment
With Congress considering permitting reform and America’s broadband providers investing at historic levels, USTelecom President and CEO Jonathan Spalter is calling on lawmakers to ensure broadband infrastructure is part of any final permitting reform legislation.
In a new Agri-Pulse op-ed, Spalter points to a fundamental disconnect: broadband providers invested $92.6 billion last year to expand, upgrade and modernize America’s communications infrastructure, yet projects intended to connect rural and underserved communities can still spend months or even years waiting for government permits.
“America’s broadband providers are doing their part, putting tens of billions of dollars on the line every year to complete our digital bridge,” Spalter writes. “Now, Congress has to do its part. Broadband must be included in any permitting reform legislation. Pass broadband permitting reform, clear the path, and let us get to work connecting every corner of the country.”
The op-ed comes as Congress considers broader permitting reform, including on federal lands, and just one day after USTelecom filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission detailing the state and local permitting headaches confronting communications providers. The filing describes prolonged reviews, unpredictable procedures, excessive fees, permit caps and unrelated conditions that can cause providers to delay, reroute, scale back or abandon broadband builds altogether.
The real-world consequences are significant. One provider reported four fiber projects delayed for more than two years, while another said permitting and right-of-way delays put approximately $33 million in contracted customer commitments at risk across 17 routes and 36 project sites and resulted in roughly $7.9 million in acceleration, overtime and remobilization costs. In other cases, permitting and fee disputes led providers to cancel, pause or postpone dozens of projects representing more than $18 million in planned investment, while other barriers prevented or derailed builds that would have reached thousands of homes and businesses.
USTelecom is urging the FCC to establish 60-day shot clocks for standard applications and 90-day shot clocks for genuinely complex projects, backed by protections against procedural workarounds and meaningful remedies when governments fail to act. The association is also calling for permitting fees to be tied to reasonable, actual right-of-way management costs and disclosed in advance.
As Spalter writes in Agri-Pulse, faster and more predictable permitting does not mean eliminating legitimate government review. It means creating clear standards and reasonable timelines that protect public interests while allowing broadband investment to become broadband connections.
Read Jonathan Spalter’s full Agri-Pulse op-ed: “As broadband investment grows, rural America still waits on permits.”