On August 31, the Trump administration sent formal notice of a $1.42 billion grant to California to supply broadband access to 270,000 households and businesses, as authorized in the 2021 infrastructure law signed by President Biden. But if California Gov. Gavin Newsom accepts the award, the state must also agree to not enforce its nation-leading standards for broadband affordability and reliability for 14 years, forgoing mandatory low-income plans and other benefits that save consumers billions of dollars, as well as the strongest net neutrality and anti-throttling laws in the country.
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The Trump administration has strong leverage to free these large companies from regulation because broadband is such a fundamental lifeline for the 21st century, and communities need access. “Everybody wants more people to be connected,” said Barbara van Schewick, director of the Stanford Center for Internet & Society. “The problem is that the Trump administration has turned this into a poison pill.”
Read full story at The American Prospect.