Sponsors (4)
The bill increases transparency about whether equipment availability is affecting broadband deployment without adding new data burdens on providers, but its usefulness may be limited by data gaps and it creates modest extra administrative work for the FCC.
Communities seeking broadband (especially rural and other underserved areas) and policymakers will gain clearer information about whether network equipment availability has slowed broadband deployment, helping target supply‑chain or vendor-related barriers to expanding high‑speed service.
Telecommunications providers will not face new data collection demands because the bill clarifies FCC reporting requirements, reducing provider compliance burden compared with imposing additional information requests.
Communities (particularly rural and other underserved areas) may still lack useful explanations for slow broadband deployment because the FCC's assessment is limited to existing data, so gaps could leave causes unclear.
FCC staff and other federal employees may face modest additional administrative and procedural work from the new reporting requirement language and renumbering, potentially diverting time from other regulatory tasks.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires the FCC to report, when data are available, how network equipment availability affected deployment of advanced telecommunications capability.
Requires the Federal Communications Commission to include, when data are available, an assessment of how the availability of network equipment affected deployment of advanced telecommunications capability in its periodic communications marketplace report. Makes minor renumbering and cross-reference edits and clarifies that the change does not force providers to supply more information than previously required.
Official title: Direct the Federal Communications Commission to evaluate and consider the impact of the telecommunications network equipment supply chain on the deployment of universal service, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 10, 2025 by John Wright Hickenlooper · Last progress November 10, 2025