There is no new federal antenna rule. The last change was April 2023
There is no new federal antenna rule. The last change was April 2023
2026-09-21 · Wisconsin · Compliance
The federal rule that overrides a Wisconsin association's restrictions on satellite dishes and certain antennas has not changed. Its last amendment was April 10, 2023, and anyone describing a new 2026 antenna rule is describing something that does not exist.
47 C.F.R. § 1.4000 — the Over-the-Air Reception Devices rule — has nine recorded versions in the Code of Federal Regulations, the most recent dated April 10, 2023.1
What the rule says, and where it stops
The operative sentence is long, and every clause in it matters:
“Any restriction, including but not limited to any state or local law or regulation, including zoning, land-use, or building regulations, or any private covenant, contract provision, lease provision, homeowners' association rule or similar restriction, on property within the exclusive use or control of the antenna user where the user has a direct or indirect ownership or leasehold interest in the property that impairs the installation, maintenance, or use of” a covered device is prohibited.
Two halves. The first names homeowners association rules expressly, alongside covenants and lease provisions — this is one of the rare federal rules that reaches a private declaration directly. The second confines it to property “within the exclusive use or control of the antenna user.”
The covered devices include an antenna used to receive direct broadcast satellite service, including direct-to-home satellite service, or to receive or transmit fixed wireless signals via satellite, that is one meter or less in diameter; and an antenna used to receive video programming via multipoint distribution services or to receive or transmit certain fixed wireless signals.
The line that decides most Wisconsin disputes
“Exclusive use or control” is where this rule meets Wisconsin condominium law, and the two fit together more cleanly than owners usually expect.
A balcony, patio or deeded yard assigned to a single unit is ordinarily within the owner's exclusive use. Roofs, exterior walls and common grounds are not — in a Wisconsin condominium they are common elements, and the association's authority over them comes from the declaration and chapter 703. Section 703.09(1)(g) requires a declaration to state the purposes for which units are “intended and restricted as to use,” and § 703.10(1) provides that “[e]very unit owner shall comply strictly with the bylaws and with the rules adopted under the bylaws… and with the covenants, conditions and restrictions set forth in the declaration or in the deed to the unit.”
So the federal rule does not give an owner a right to mount a dish on a common roof, and it does not disturb an association's control of common elements. What it does is remove the association's ability to forbid installation in a space the owner alone uses.
Why this belongs next to the solar question
Wisconsin's treatment of rooftop equipment is inconsistent depending on what the equipment is, and the contrast is instructive.
For antennas, there is a federal rule that names homeowners association rules and voids them within the owner's exclusive-use area.
For solar, Wisconsin's only statute voiding a private covenant is Wis. Stat. § 236.292(2): “All restrictions on platted land that prevent or unduly restrict the construction and operation of solar energy systems… are void.” It reaches platted land, it sits in the platting chapter, and it has not been amended since 1999. The general solar provision, § 66.0401(1m), binds only political subdivisions.
For electric-vehicle charging, there is nothing at all — no Wisconsin statutory right to install a charger in a condominium or planned community, and no federal preemption either.
Three technologies, three different answers, none of them the result of a coherent design. Our Wisconsin solar rights and EV charging pages cover the other two.
The deregulatory docket that did not touch it
The Federal Communications Commission has been running a broad deregulatory proceeding, and it has been a source of speculation that the antenna rule might move. The amendment history answers that directly: nine versions, the last on April 10, 2023, with no 2025 or 2026 entry. The last substantive expansion was the 2021 Report and Order extending the rule to certain fixed wireless hub and relay antennas — which is why the current text reads “including a hub or relay antenna used to receive or transmit fixed wireless services that are not classified as telecommunications services.”
What to watch next
Nothing in the 2025-26 Wisconsin legislative session touched any of this. No Wisconsin bill addressed association restrictions on solar, antennas or EV charging, and the 2026 interim study-committee slate contains nothing on housing or community associations.
The item with an actual date attached is financial rather than regulatory: the federal residential clean energy credit under IRC § 25D and the alternative fuel vehicle refueling property credit under IRC § 30C have both ended, which reduces the volume of owner solar and charging applications a Wisconsin board receives without changing what the board may decide.
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