Lumos recently took the unusual step of petitioning the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) after local permitting requirements in Stark and Mahoning Counties created barriers that prevented new fiber telecommunications and broadband investment and limited competition. The petition asks the FCC to determine whether these local requirements violate Section 253 of the Communications Act by effectively preventing a competitive telecommunications provider from accessing public rights-of-way and serving Ohio communities.

This wasn’t a decision Lumos made lightly. Before filing the petition, more than a year was spent working with county officials in an effort to find a practical path forward. After investing millions of dollars in engineering and planning, those efforts ultimately failed, leaving thousands of Ohio homes and businesses without the opportunity to choose another provider.

Why does this matter?

When a community has competitive options, residents and businesses gain far more than faster internet. Competition drives investment, improves customer service, expands consumer choice, supports economic development, increases access to education and telehealth, and helps communities attract employers and new residents.

That is why Lumos has committed hundreds of millions of dollars to deploy next-generation fiber broadband and telecommunications infrastructure across Ohio. Unfortunately, the extraordinary permitting requirements imposed in Stark and Mahoning Counties prevented that investment from reaching the communities that wanted it most.

Ohio is at a Crossroads

Ohio’s ability to compete for jobs, investment, and talent depends on modern fiber infrastructure. Yet today, only about one-third of Ohio residents have access to fiber-optic gigabit connectivity, placing the state near the bottom nationally. Lumos came to Ohio to help change that by investing in world-class fiber infrastructure and bringing meaningful competition to communities with limited choices.

We fully support reasonable local oversight of public rights-of-way and successfully work with hundreds of municipalities across the country. However, the extraordinary permitting requirements imposed in Stark and Mahoning Counties went far beyond already stringent and reasonable regulation, creating excessive costs, years of potential delays, and an uneven playing field that ultimately made deployment economically unworkable. This unusual move deprived thousands of Ohio residents and businesses of greater choice.

What Happened

Safety is—and always will be—Lumos’ highest priority. Before any construction begins, we follow all applicable local, state, and federal requirements to identify underground utilities, obtain permits, and protect the communities where we work. We respect the important role local governments play in managing public rights-of-way and have successfully worked under those requirements in hundreds of communities across the country.

Where we became concerned was not with reasonable oversight, but with extraordinary requirements that went well beyond what is required to protect public interest. In Stark County, Lumos was asked to pay unsubstantiated per-foot fees, absorb uncapped and duplicative inspection costs, and complete additional county survey requirements that duplicated existing processes while shifting responsibilities traditionally handled by local government onto providers.

Together, those competition-suppressing requirements increased projected deployment costs by approximately 50 percent.

The surveying requirement alone would have added roughly $1.5 million in costs and potentially delayed construction for years due to the limited number of licensed surveyors available to perform the work. For comparison, the same right-of-way access in other jurisdictions generally would not exceed $500.

By the time the County informed us of these new and unreasonable requirements, Lumos had already invested approximately $1.4 million in engineering and project planning.

In Mahoning County, a similar story played out due to that county’s surveying requirement. In addition to severely higher costs, the survey requirement in both counties would also delay deployment by several years, completely changing the timeline for when residents and businesses could expect to sign up for service.

After investing millions in engineering across the two counties, Lumos was forced to suspend plans that would have expanded fiber access to approximately 200,000 households.

Most disappointing is the effect on the residents of these counties. Several of the counties’ townships and villages actively sought Lumos’ service and want the economic and social benefits Lumos’ investment will bring. However, many portions of our build-out involve county road crossings and rights-of-way to get to these communities, which means we are unable to bring the services they so enthusiastically desire for their residents.

Before filing our petition and asking the FCC to weigh in, Lumos spent more than a year pursuing local solutions. We attended meetings, submitted applications, and engaged with county officials. We even continued discussions while permit approvals were delayed or frozen. Throughout the process, our objective remained the same: to find a path forward that allowed us to invest in these communities while respecting local authority.

Unfortunately, those efforts did not produce a workable solution. This is why we have now asked the FCC for help.

Why This Matters Beyond Lumos

Fundamentally, this case is not about Lumos. It is about whether local governments must allow consumers and communities to have access to competitive options. Federal law requires that they must.

Federal law recognizes that local governments have the right to reasonably manage their rights-of-way, but it does not allow them to prevent a competitive provider from entering the market.

Congress addressed this issue directly in Section 253 of the Communications Act, which bars state and local requirements that “prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting” the provision of telecommunications services. It’s quite clear that if a local requirement materially inhibits a provider’s ability to deploy infrastructure, compete fairly, or offer service to consumers, federal law may require intervention.

Lumos is a certificated telecommunications provider operating under authority granted by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, and we possess legal rights to access public rights-of-way. When local requirements become so burdensome that they block deployment—or when those requirements are applied unevenly among competitors—the issue becomes larger than a local permitting dispute. It becomes a question of whether competition itself is being allowed.

For Lumos, the question was never whether governments should oversee rights-of-way. The question was whether the requirements being imposed allowed a practical path to deployment and competition.

A Path Forward

Ohio has successfully navigated similar challenges before. The state created a clear framework for wireless infrastructure deployment that balanced local authority with statewide connectivity goals. A similar approach for wireline deployments would provide clarity for providers, predictability for local governments, and, most importantly, greater competition for consumers.

Reasonable local oversight should remain; however, barriers to competition should not. Those two goals can coexist.

Our Commitment

Lumos did not come to Ohio to file petitions. We came to Ohio to build.

The communities we sought to serve have made it clear they want more choice. We remain committed to finding a path forward that allows those residents and businesses to benefit from competitive fiber infrastructure. We look forward to working with the FCC, Ohio policymakers, and local officials to find a resolution that ensures communities get the investment, competition, and connectivity they deserve.

Lumos continues to invest in next-generation infrastructure across Ohio, the Midwest, and Eastern United States. We are part of the community and would like to do our part to help ensure the fiber infrastructure we’re building helps Ohio communities thrive for years to come.