Cap state and local fees and review times for wireline permits

Research notes

• The Notice of Inquiry was not published in the Federal Register — the FCC’s own document is the only record of it, and a Federal Register search for WC Docket 25-253 returns only the 2026 NPRM. docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/ is open to automated fetches; www.fcc.gov was recorded here as a hard 403 to both curl and WebFetch, and that is wrong — it opens to the full browser header set (corrected 2026-09-03, read-queue ticket 04).
• No court has stopped any of this: the three unexplained FCC petitions for review were identified on 2026-09-03 (read-queue ticket 04) and none of them touches this ask. The bulk docket snapshot carried three petitions filed against the FCC whose subject nothing in the Corpus named. Read from the petitions themselves and from the dispositive order:
  • 9th Cir. No. 26-3946, The Utility Reform Network; Rural County Representatives of California; Communications Workers of America v. FCC, filed 2026-06-18, and 9th Cir. No. 26-3955, California Public Utilities Commission v. FCC, filed 2026-06-22, both seek review of the same order: Reducing Barriers to Network Improvements and Service Changes; Accelerating Network Modernization, WC Docket Nos. 25-209 and 25-208, FCC 26-19 (rel. Mar. 27, 2026), 91 Fed. Reg. 20,913 (Apr. 20, 2026) — a copper-retirement and network-modernization order. Neither concerns pole attachments, wireline permitting fees or review times.
  • D.C. Cir. No. 26-1062 (consolidated with 26-1065), Broadband Communications Association of Pennsylvania, et al. v. FCC, filed 2026-03-21, challenges the Media Bureau’s 2026-03-19 order approving the Nexstar–TEGNA transfer of broadcast licenses (MB Docket No. 25-331). It was terminated 2026-07-09. So there is no blocked event to consider here, and the negative is now a measurement rather than an absence. Read via the CourtListener search API (live-indexed, so past the bulk snapshot’s 2026-06-30 cutoff) and the free RECAP PDFs at storage.courtlistener.com.
• The wireless half of the Build America Agenda ran a year ahead: Build America: Eliminating Barriers to Wireless Deployments (proposed rule 2025-21620, 2025-12-01). The Quote asks specifically for the wireline analogue of the FCC’s small-cell orders, which is WC Docket 25-253.
• Distinct proceeding, same subject, already delivered: the FCC’s Fifth Report and Order on pole attachments (2025-16332, 2025-08-26, effective on OMB clearance announced 2026-09083) set timelines for large pole attachment requests and contractor approval. That binds utilities, not state and local governments, so it is not this ask.