The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said it will cease consideration of an earlier proposal that would have eliminated bulk billing arrangements imposed on tenants living or working in apartments, condos, public housing, and other such buildings. The Commission, under new Chairman Brendan Carr, is no longer considering the plan because it represents “costly regulatory overreach… that would have artificially raised the cost of internet service.”
The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was originally put forward in March 2024 by former FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. It proposed banning bulk-billing arrangements that require tenants to pay for broadband, cable, or satellite services from a specific provider, even if they do not want the service or wish to use a different provider. Had the proposal been adopted, it would have given tenants the choice to opt out of these arrangements.
The FCC’s original Proposed Rule said that bulk billing programs force households to pay high prices, while giving them limited choices for internet and other services. The agency declared at the time that it would seek comment on actions it could take to lower costs and encourage greater choice of communications services for the millions of people in multi-tenant environments.
This week’s announcement from the FCC stated the opposite about the cost of bulk billing to households. It said bulk billing programs have enabled families living in apartments and other multi-tenant environments to pay lower prices for internet service. The announcement theorized that, if it had passed, the earlier proposal “could have raised the price of internet service for Americans living in apartments by as much as 50 percent.”
“… This regulatory overreach from Washington would have hit families right in their pocketbooks at a time when they were already hurting from the last Administration’s inflationary policies,” Carr said.
He added that a broad, bipartisan coalition of groups had opposed the plan, noting that those who would have been most unfavorably affected were seniors, students, and low-income individuals.
