BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: California, and many other states, have muscled their way onto the national broadband stage. They've done this through legislation that would either require net neutrality protections that the Federal Communications Commission removed in December 2017, or use state purchase power to require that selected Internet Service Providers commit to neutrality principles, or both. In this piece from Electronic Frontier Foundation's Ernesto Falcon, the non-profit group is urging renewed focus on a law that governs access to rights of way and underground conduit. Bonus quote: "Californians have very little access to wholesale open access fiber companies, or any broadband provider that is not a cable TV or telephone company. That differs significantly from places such as Utah, where people have eleven choices for gigabit fiber at around $50 a month."
Don’t Let California’s Legislature Extend Broadband Monopolies for Comcast and AT&T, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Californians have successfully pushed the state's legislature to restore two-thirds of the 2015 Open Internet Order through state laws. Stopping legislation from Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez—backed by AT&T and Comcast (A.B. 1366)—is the final piece to bringing back those critical protections to promote broadband choice.
The California Assembly will soon take up this bill, which would renew a 2011 ISP-backed law that expires this year. That law had the stated goal of promoting choice and competition for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. In practice, however, it has sidelined state and local governments from exerting authority over broadband and led to fewer choices for consumers at higher prices.
Today, most Californians face a monopoly for high-speed broadband access. If we let the 2011 law expire, California could instead choose to empower state and local governments to create policies to eliminate local monopolies. Doing so now is even more crucial than it was in 2011, as the FCC no longer oversees the broadband industry.
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