Broadband news digest for November 26, 2025
House Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie (KY-02) and Subcommittee Chairman Gus Bilirakis (R-FL-12) announced a Dec 3 hearing titled Legislative Solutions to Protect Children and Teens Online. The hearing will focus on the following bills:
With more than 150 satellites in orbit and initial network testing underway, Amazon Leo (formerly Project Kuiper) is sharing new details on its enterprise-focused hardware, services, and capabilities, and launching a new preview program for select enterprise customers to begin testing Amazon Leo services ahead of a wider commercial rollout in 2026.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the items below are tentatively on the agenda for the December Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, December 18, 2025:
We write to express our significant concerns with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) implementation of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program under the Trump Administration. It is evident that NTIA's implementation of the BEAD Program violates the letter of the [Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act] and ignores the intent of Congress, jeopardizing the bipartisan goal of delivering fast, reliable, and affordable internet to everyone in America.
The telecommunications industry is anticipating a fiber shortage beginning in 2026 and lingering for a couple of years. Those companies planning major fiber-to-the-home deployments should consider their options when it comes to network topologies because the choice can make a difference in the amount of fiber needed. Traditional fiber networks have been deployed in a centralized topology that mimics the same pattern as legacy copper networks. With this architecture, feeder fibers originate at the optical line terminal in a central office and are sent out to a fiber distribution hub.
Analysts at the Broadband Nation Expo delved into the biggest trends and issues they expect will shape the telecommunications landscape in 2026. Here's what they said:
The use of complementary technologies for connectivity has been a key trend that shows no signs of stopping. “We are seeing a lot more complementarity nowadays,” said Brattle Group Principal Paroma Sanyal. This includes large and small operators doubling down on fixed wireless access and the rise of direct-to-device with satellite.
Ahead of the two-month anniversary of President Donald Trump signing an executive order on a supposed TikTok deal, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA), a member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, wrote a letter to President Trump, requesting a briefing on the status of the TikTok deal and answers to questions on the terms of the deal. Sen Markey writes, "Although your Administration has repeatedly declared that it reached a TikTok deal with China and financial investors, you have released few details on any agreement.
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