If Net Neutrality Is Repealed, What Will It Mean For People Who Don't Have Broadband Yet?

Right now, cities and towns have a little bit of leverage when talking to cable companies about installing fiber networks, according to Harvard law professor Susan Crawford. "Through saying, 'Look, come and build this network for us. But you can only build it by providing equal service to everybody in town and at a low price,' that's how that particular direction is being carried out in Massachusetts,” Crawford said. But she said towns may not be able to do that anymore. “The great uncertainty created by the recent FCC order is that Mr. Pai has said that any language coming out of a city or a state that's inconsistent with what I'm up to is hereby blocked by this order.”

Crawford also said that if a town required a company to build a network that reaches all its residents, it could be violating the new FCC rule.