In a webinar yesterday, “Policy Talk: A Look Back on 2025, A Preview of 2026,” NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association CEO Shirley Bloomfield and Executive Vice President Mike Romano discussed 2025 broadband policy highlights and likely 2026 policy issues.
Bloomfield began by celebrating the Supreme Court’s June decision to uphold the Universal Service Fund (USF). “We allowed ourselves 24 hours to celebrate and then got right back to it,” she said.
Romano mentioned NTCA’s involvement with the House of Representatives’ USF Working Group and discussed a current case that questions portions of the USF before the Fifth Circuit Court.
“The beauty of universal service… is we’re all in this together,” Romano said. “This is about connecting every American — regardless of where they live, their income level — making sure schools, libraries, and rural healthcare facilities are connected. The moment we start to be played off against each other is the moment that the bipartisan nature of the issues… start to fall apart, and we don’t want to see that happen.”
Romano added that NTCA is looking closely at the costs of broadband service, which further supports the ongoing case for the necessity of the USF.
NTCA and BEAD policy
Both Bloomfield and Romano talked about the continuing challenges of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program.
“What we now have is an entirely new fight over how to use some of these leftover BEAD funds,” Bloomfield said, referring to the recent executive order tying BEAD non-deployment funds to states’ artificial intelligence (AI) policies.
Bloomfield said NTCA will be monitoring the BEAD Program deployment carefully. “I think we still have a job to ensure that this program deploys per expectations and that there’s accountability [and] transparency,” she said.
NTCA and permitting policy
Bloomfield discussed the deregulation of permitting that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under Chairman Brendan Carr is pursuing. She said that permitting delays have indeed kept some providers tied up, and smart regulation is needed.
“[Rural broadband providers] need regulatory certainty. We need to make sure you know what the rules of the game are, and that’s going to be a point of emphasis for us with this FCC as they head into the coming year.”
Romano added that NTCA has been involved in multiple recent events where permitting policy was discussed, “talking about the importance of common-sense permitting reform.”
Other policies
Romano said NTCA is working with the FCC on the Alternative Connect America Model (ACAM) to ensure the program continues for rural broadband providers.
He also said NTCA is involved in conversations about the IP evolution and the sunsetting of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) by the close of 2028.
“We’re going to put forward a good set of arguments that will create a workable framework for rural providers to make sure they’re minimizing the costs associated with interconnection, and that the efficiencies of IP interconnection are not all being gained by the five largest providers in the United States,” Romano said.
Finally, Bloomfield discussed NTCA’s upcoming AI Summit on January 30, 2026. The event, she said, will be “a great opportunity to hear best practices, what are your peers doing in all the different tracks that matter — whether it’s customer service, network operations, management and design, and finance — [and] give you some takeaway, tangible tools to utilize some of the efficiencies that, love it or hate it, AI is bringing.”
