California Trades Net Neutrality for Federal Broadband Cash
Censorship blocking · 16.09.2026

California is ready to take $1.86 billion from Trump for broadband. Fine print: in exchange, the state agrees to forget what net neutrality is. For 14 years. And not just where the federally funded cable gets laid, but statewide.

A reminder: California spent years in court defending its own net neutrality law — a ban on providers blocking traffic or charging websites for priority delivery. Trump's first administration tried to bury it and lost in court. The second found a workaround: it built the neutrality waiver into the conditions of the BEAD grant. Don't want to comply — don't get the money.

Tomorrow the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) votes on a resolution it calls a "procedural formality." Attorney Paul Goodman of the Center for Accessible Technology disagrees: "This is the beginning of the end." After the vote, challenging the conditions in court will become nearly impossible — the case would have to be brought in the D.C. Circuit, where the bar for evidence has been raised to "prove fraud or corruption." Before signing, there was still a chance in the more favorable Ninth Circuit.

Also potentially on the chopping block: the law banning throttling of emergency services (passed after Verizon slowed firefighters' internet during a wildfire), the condition from the Verizon merger requiring $20 internet for low-income households, and the attempt to regulate AT&T's landline rates.

Nearly 30 civil rights organizations wrote to Governor Newsom urging him not to give ground. 69% of California's BEAD money will go to the same five giants anyway — Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, Amazon's Kuiper, and Starlink. Stanford professor Barbara van Schewick puts it bluntly: a federal agency cannot use grant fine print to overturn what Congress wrote into law.

A similar story is unfolding in New York, which has already agreed to $664.6 million — putting at risk the affordable internet law the state also fought for in court. The scheme is simple: money in exchange for surrendering state sovereignty over communications regulation. Federalism as a service, except the service is temporarily unavailable.

Source: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/california-may-gut-state-net-neutrality-law-to-comply-with-trump-admin-demand/