Electronic Frontier Foundation

Expanding Broadband in Portland (OR), The Time Is Now

Our local and regional governments have a responsibility to provide equitable, accessible, and affordable fast-internet service to every home and business—just like electricity, water, and waste removal. Portland (OR) has existing infrastructure that can be used to provide affordable access to fast internet for all Portlanders: a publicly owned dark fiber network used for essential city services—IRNE (Integrated Regional Network Enterprise) Net.

New York City Is Dismantling Low-Cost Community Broadband

New York City is shutting down NYC Mesh, a community-run low-cost broadband network that provided affordable internet access to underserved areas. The network relied on a decentralized model where users helped expand it.

Why is New York City Removing Free Broadband In Favor of Charter?

In January 2020, former-Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NY) announced New York City’s Internet Master Plan, setting a path to deliver broadband for low-income New Yorkers by investing in public fiber infrastructure.

California Bill Would Make New Broadband Networks More Expensive

The state of California is primed to bring 21st-century fiber access at affordable rates to every Californian. All of the recent state and federal efforts will help bring every Californian affordable fiber internet access. But a bill in the California legislature threatens to undo all of that good work. A.B.

We Finally Have a Federal Fiber Broadband Plan

There is a lot to appreciate in the recently published Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) by the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA). It is arguably the first federal government proposal that seeks to promote infrastructure policies focused on the future, rather than the usual subsidizing “good enough for now” access. That means that the US government, or at least part of it, finally recognizes what appears obvious: that the future of internet access is in fiber.

The Internet Needs Fair Rules of the Road – and Competitive Drivers

In the past few weeks, the Biden Administration has finally moved forward with nominations to the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission. As the agencies move forward, fully staffed at last, we hope they will both recognize the role they can play in promoting net neutrality – meaning, in preventing ISPs from taking advantage of their effective gatekeeping roles to favor some services over others. Most people think of net neutrality as the province of the FCC, at least at the federal level.

Federal Agencies Need to Be Staffed to Advance Broadband and Tech Competition

In the US, we need better internet. We need oversight over Big Tech, ISPs, and other large companies. We need the federal agencies with the powers to advance competition, protect privacy, and empower consumers to be fully staffed and working. New infrastructure legislation aimed at ending the digital divide gives new responsibilities to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and Congress relies on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to reign in Big Tech and others.

Wholesale Fiber is the Key to Broad US Fiber to the Premises Coverage

Public investments in open-access fiber networks, instead of more subsidies for broadband carriers, will bring high-speed internet on a more cost-efficient basis to millions of Americans and create an infrastructure that can handle internet growth for decades, according to a new report.

How California’s Broadband Infrastructure Law Promotes Local Choice

California's legislative session has ended and Governor Newsom is expected to sign into law S.B.4 and A.B.14, the final pieces of the state’s new broadband infrastructure program. With a now-estimated $7.5 billion assembled between federal and state funds, the state has the resources it needs to largely close its digital divide in the coming years.

Starve the Beast: Monopoly Power and Political Corruption

In 2017, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced his intention to dismantle the FCC’s hard-won network neutrality regulation. The 2015 net neutrality order owed its existence to the millions who submitted comments to the FCC demanding commonsense protection from predatory internet service providers (ISPs). After Pai’s announcement, those same millions flooded the FCC’s comment portal, actually overwhelming the FCC’s servers and shutting them down.

The Bipartisan Broadband Bill is Good, But Won’t End the Digital Divide

The US Senate is on the cusp of approving an infrastructure package, which passed a critical first vote last night by 67-32. There is a lot to like in it, some of which will depend on decisions by the state governments and the Federal Communications Commission. Negotiations on the final bill are ongoing, but the draft broadband provisions have been released.

Californians Can Now Choose Their Broadband Destiny

Despite being one of the world’s largest economies, the state of California was long without a broadband plan for universal, affordable, high-speed access. It is clear that access that meets their needs requires fiber optic infrastructure, yet most Californians were stuck with slow broadband monopolies due to laws supported by the cable monopolies providing terrible service. But all of that is finally coming to an end.

The Future Is in Symmetrical, High-Speed Internet Speeds

Congress is about to make critical decisions about the future of internet access and speed in the United States. It has a potentially once-in-a-lifetime amount of funding to spend on broadband infrastructure, and at the heart of this debate is the minimum speed requirement for taxpayer-funded internet. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the granularity of this debate, but ultimately it boils down to this: cable companies want a definition that requires them to do and give less, one that will not meet our needs in the future.

If Not Overturned, a Bad Copyright Decision Will Lead Many Americans to Lose Internet Access

In going after internet service providers (ISPs) for the actions of just a few of their users, Sony Music, other major record labels, and music publishing companies have found a way to cut people off of the internet based on mere accusations of copyright infringement. When these music companies sued Cox Communications, an ISP, the court got the law wrong. It effectively decided that the only way for an ISP to avoid being liable for infringement by its users is to terminate a household or business’s account after a small number of accusations—perhaps only two.

The U.S. Internet Is Being Starved of Its Potential: 2020 in Review

So long as our local, state, and federal governments do not prioritize delivering future-proofed infrastructure to all people, our ability to make full use of the 21st century Internet will be limited. What the Internet becomes in the mid-to-late 21st century will not be an American story, unless we aggressively course-correct our infrastructure policies soon.