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Requirements for forthcoming consumer broadband labels are nearly finalized, but a new batch of Federal Communications Commission filings shows there are still key points of disagreement between public interest groups and industry organizations representing internet service providers (ISP). Consumer advocates including Next Century Cities and Consumer Reports expressed opposing views from industry groups like NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association and the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) on some of those matters. Here are some of those remaining sticking points:

For the first time ever, Congress allowed the Federal Communication Commission's spectrum auction authority to lapse—a development that prevents the agency from auctioning more spectrum to 5G network operators. At roughly the same time, President Joe Biden's nominee to the FCC, Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society], abruptly withdrew from contention without any clear replacement.

According to the financial analysts at Evercore, US fiber operators are significantly scaling back their network buildout efforts.

Roger Timmerman, CEO of Utopia Fiber, called out the "army" of lobbyists that are keeping broadband speed standards down in the US. "The problem is we've got an $8 million a week lobbying effort from big telecom, and so anytime the federal government – or even now at the state level – when any of them try to raise that bar for the standard of what consumers need for broadband, there's an army of lobbying that goes up and opposes that.

The Federal Communications Commission is contracting communications firm Porter Novelli Public Services (PNPS) to carry out a "consumer education plan" in order to broaden public awareness of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). The FCC detailed its plans to work with PNPS in a contract opportunity posted on Sam.gov, with an award date of February 1, 2023.

T-Mobile's fixed wireless access (FWA) Internet business appears headed into a new phase that will likely involve an expansion into rural areas of the US. "We believe this is the beginning of a slowdown in the pace in existing markets," said analysts at Evercore. However, Evercore analysts noted that T-Mobile is also in the midst of expanding its speedy 2.5 GHz mid-band 5G network to around 35 million new locations – mostly in rural areas – during 2023. That project, they said, will help prop up T-Mobile's fixed wireless growth curve, albeit with a rural focus.

US cable's big wireless gains in 2022 and expected to continue paired with a broader deceleration across the wireless industry will make it difficult for mobile's "Big Three"—AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon—to beat and raise their subscriber targets. "The twin headwinds of decelerating industry growth and share loss to Cable are not sufficiently reflected in industry and company expectations, in our view," said MoffettNathanson Analyst Craig Moffett. US cable raked in more than 40% of wireless industry net adds in 2022. Growth for the Big Three mobile carriers slowed in 2022, ending with a