California lawmakers have abandoned an effort to mandate Internet service providers (ISPs) to offer $15 monthly broadband plans for low-income residents. The proposal, introduced by Assemblymember Tasha Boerner, was modeled after New York’s law that mandates affordable broadband access. However, the bill faced pushback from ISPs and a potential loss of $1.86 billion in federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funds, as new Trump administration rules prohibit states from setting low-cost broadband rates. Boerner, a Democrat, had made adjustments to the bill, such as lowering required download and upload speeds, but ultimately dropped the effort to avoid jeopardizing the state’s share of the federal funding program.
Boerner, a Democrat who chairs the Communications and Conveyance Committee, faced significant pressure from ISPs to change or drop the bill. She made some modifications, including lowering the required download speeds from 100Mbps to 50Mbps and upload speeds from 20Mbps to 10Mbps. However, the bill was still moving through the legislature when Trump administration officials informed her office that California could lose $1.86 billion in BEAD funds if it forced ISPs to offer low-cost service to low-income residents. This amount represents California’s share of a $42.45 billion fund created by Congress to expand broadband access. The Trump administration had revised the program rules, delaying grants, and now prohibits states from explicitly setting low-cost broadband rates for ISPs.
In response to these challenges, Boerner stated that the mere application for the BEAD program would exempt ISPs from the $15 broadband mandate, even if their applications were valid or grants were awarded. This tradeoff was unacceptable to her, leading to the withdrawal of the bill. Meanwhile, another California bill in the Senate would encourage, rather than require, ISPs to offer cheap broadband by making them eligible for Lifeline subsidies if they sell 100/20Mbps service for $30 or less. This alternative approach reflects a shift toward incentivizing rather than mandating affordable broadband access, raising questions about the effectiveness of different policy strategies in combating broadband inequality.