A year after oral arguments, the fate of the Federal Communications Commission’s digital discrimination rules remains unresolved in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. A three-judge panel, all Republicans, heard the case, Minnesota Telecom Alliance v. FCC, on Sept. 25, 2024. But the court has yet to issue a decision. In the meantime, the legal landscape has shifted: The Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision ended Chevron deference, President Trump issued an executive order eliminating the disparate impact standard across federal agencies, and digital discrimination rules critic Brendan Carr is now the FCC chairman. Andrew Jay Schwartzman, counsel for the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, which intervened in support of the FCC, said the outcome of the Eighth Circuit case may not matter much in practice. Whatever the court does, Carr is positioned to shape the rules’ future. “If, as was possible based on the argument, the court ultimately reverses the FCC, Chairman Carr might not have to do much. If it sends it back for further proceedings, the FCC will do that. If it affirms the earlier decision, I imagine the chairman will initiate proceedings to rescind the earlier decision and state it will not enforce it in the interim,” said Schwartzman.

US telephone companies of varied shapes and sizes will be retiring portions of their copper networks in the years to come. However, none are currently attacking copper phase-outs like AT&T. AT&T's initiative is simply much more massive in size and scope. As announced in 2024, AT&T is on a mission to shut down power-hungry and broadly inefficient copper-based services across the bulk of its US footprint by the end of 2029. AT&T is making progress. The Federal Communications Commission recently approved AT&T to discontinue legacy services in about 10% of its footprint. That approval, considered a significant milestone for AT&T, is set to take effect in June 2026. "That's a pretty big, scaled filing across 500 of our wire centers," senior EVP Susan Johnson said.

On September 25, President Trump signed an executive order allowing TikTok to remain active in the US under the requirements of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. President Trump has determined that the divestiture outlined in a proposed framework agreement, in which TikTok’s U.S. application would be operated by a new joint-venture company based in the United States, is a “qualified divestiture.” It will be majority-owned by U.S. investors, operated in the U.S. by a board of directors with national security and cybersecurity credentials, and subject to strict rules to protect Americans’ data and national security.

AI is changing the game in telecom, but it’s not just shaping how telcos operate. It’s also shifting what kinds of product sets customers expect from them. At Alianza’s Navigate event in Salt Lake City (UT), analysts broke down the threats and opportunities that are in front of operators. AI in the call center is one use case companies have latched on to as an easy internal AI target. But consumers are apparently not as convinced that AI is the ticket to better service, Dom Black, Principal Analyst at U.K.-based firm Cavell, said. He noted Cavell’s research has found 49 percent of consumers believe they have to speak to a human to get their desired results. Only 23 percent think chatbots are any good at handling customer issues.

The Trump administration's five research and development priorities include ensuring American leadership in critical and emerging technologies. These critical and emerging technologies promise to fuel American prosperity, improve quality of life and national security, and create high-paying jobs for American workers:

• Artificial Intelligence: The potential of AI as a new frontier of exploration and application promises breakthroughs across a range of scientific disciplines and industrial sectors. Federal investment in fundamental research into novel AI paradigms and computing architectures will support continued American leadership in this field. Areas of emphasis include AI architectural advancements; data-efficient and high-performance AI techniques and systems; the interpretability, controllability, and steerability of AI systems; and AI adversarial robustness, resilience, and security. Applied AI priorities include AI for the acceleration of scientific discovery; nuclear fission and fusion for energy production; quantum information science; advanced space analytics, remote sensing, and navigation; and embodied AI (autonomous robotics, drones, self-driving cars, and advanced sensors). Additional priorities include enhanced methodologies for AI evaluation and measurement (e.g., reliability, accuracy, robustness) and the creation and publication of structured scientific datasets for AI model training. 
• Quantum Information S&T: As quantum technologies mature and become increasingly available on the commercial market, bolstering U.S. leadership will require advancing fundamental science while also tackling emerging engineering challenges and strengthening the critical technologies enabling the quantum ecosystem. Agencies should deepen focused efforts, such as centers and core programs, to advance basic quantum information science, while also prioritizing R&D that expands the understanding of end user applications and supports the maturation of enabling technologies. 
• Semiconductors and Microelectronics: Federal investments in semiconductor and microelectronics R&D are critical to enabling the development and deployment of AI and quantum applications and strengthening supply chain resilience. 
• Advanced Communications Networks: Agencies, in close coordination with the private sector, should strengthen basic research in advanced communications technologies. This research should further America’s leadership in 5G, 6G, and beyond wireless networks, such as proliferated spacebased communication networks, to spur innovation and growth. This includes research on AI techniques optimized for wireless systems, novel approaches to spectrum sharing, and application of AI to communications and cybersecurity, toward the goal of secure and trusted applications. Agencies should encourage the development of applications that leverage 5G, 6G, and advanced networks that incorporate security and privacy by design. 
• Future Computing Technologies: To accelerate critical and emerging technologies, agencies should prioritize efforts to integrate advanced computing, software, and data resources from exascale to the edge towards enabling end-to-end application workflows, while supporting innovations in and translation of future technologies. Investment priorities include fundamental R&D in future computing technologies and paradigms including testbeds, computing infrastructure, experimental systems, and prototypes. Agencies should explore innovative models for resource aggregation and sharing, and for public-private partnerships. Priorities include translational efforts such as consortia or centers of excellence that leverage such partnerships towards the development and sustainability of computing, software, and data solutions.

Lumen Technologies announced that it has made significant progress in its buildout of the backbone for the artificial intelligence economy. The company is moving ahead with its goal of adding 34 million new intercity fiber miles by the end of 2028, bringing its total of intercity fiber miles to 47 million. According to the Lumen press release, this year the company has made several strides in AI readiness: 

• The company added more than 2.2 million new intercity fiber miles (2,500+ route miles) and said they are projected to reach 16.6 million total intercity fiber miles by the end of the year.
• It constructed signal boosters at 176 In-Line Amplifier sites. ILA shelters built on these sites serve as signal boosters along the Lumen network with up to triple the power density compared to traditional ILA shelters and are designed to be updated, renewed, and scaled for the future.
• It completed IRU conduit deployments across 55 additional routes, which expand Lumen’s ability to add and control fiber on these routes by securing long-term rights to underground pathways.
• This year, it has added more than 5.9 Pbps of total capacity to the Lumen network, preparing to deliver the bandwidth needed to handle large volumes of data processing for needs such as AI.
• It earmarked more than $100 million to bring high-speed connectivity up to 400Gbps across clouds, data centers, and metros, creating a more seamless, high-performance pipeline for AI workloads. The Lumen 400G-enabled network now spans more than 100,000 route miles.