Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the items below are tentatively on the agenda for the February Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Wednesday, February 18, 2026: 

• Strengthening the Integrity of the Lifeline Program: The FCC will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on reforms to the Lifeline program to ensure that federal dollars go to eligible Americans, enhance program integrity, ensure that service providers comply with the Commission’s rules and regulations, and streamline Lifeline rules.
• Maximizing the Potential of the 900 MHz Band: The Commission will consider a Report and Order that would enable broadband deployment on all ten megahertz of the 900 MHz band (896– 901/935–940 MHz band), facilitating additional spectrum access by utilities, critical infrastructure, and other enterprises for private wireless broadband deployments that drive innovation and stimulate the American economy.
• Proposing Application Limit in Upcoming NCE Reserved Band FM Translator Filing Window: The FCC will consider a Public Notice to propose and seek comment on eligibility restrictions and a general limit of ten applications filed by any applicant entity in the upcoming 2026 filing window for new noncommercial educational reserved band FM translator stations.
• Reforming Intercarrier Compensation: The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would seek comment on proposed reforms to intercarrier compensation, interexchange services and CAF ICC support aimed at accelerating network deployment and modernization.

A Midwest tech hub that’s also one of America’s bluest cities is moving to rein in the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure boom, underscoring a growing divide over how fast the U.S. should build out data centers. City council members in Madison (WI) home to the state’s capitol and nearly 300,000 people, voted unanimously to temporarily ban new construction of large data centers for one year. The local action comes as lawmakers nationwide grapple with a fraught issue that has sparked voter backlash across the political spectrum. Temporary data center bans are proliferating, raising the possibility that more cities—and even states—could follow suit. The trend has opened rifts among Democrats in Congress—and runs counter to the Trump administration’s goal of rapidly building AI infrastructure to compete with China.

The global market for artificial intelligence (AI) is taking shape at breathtaking speed—and with remarkably few constraints. Vast new data centers are being financed as if they were shopping centers. Foundation models are being treated as if they are the next “Intel Inside.” And the firms that used their control of computing power, data, and distribution to become Big Tech are relying on those same resources to control the tools of artificial intelligence, become Big AI, and dominate its downstream applications. This should concern everyone who believes innovation comes from competition, not control. AI is not merely another technology cycle. It is an infrastructure transformation that is as consequential as the printing press, as economy-shaping as electrification, and as society-reordering as the networked internet. Yet unlike earlier transformations, the AI era is developing at a moment when digital market power is already highly concentrated. The same companies that shaped the online platform era now sit at the center of AI. The question for policymakers globally is therefore not simply how to regulate AI risk, but whether market bottlenecks will be allowed to determine who gets to innovate, compete, and participate in the AI economy. It is the defining issue of the intelligence era.