California Faces a Choice: $1.4 Billion or Its Net Neutrality Law

Key Takeaways

• The National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced on August 31 that it would award California $1.4 billion to expand broadband — with a condition requiring the state to stop enforcing any law restricting internet service providers for 14 years.
• California has one of the strongest state-level net neutrality laws in the country, banning ISPs from blocking, throttling, zero-rating, and paid prioritization.
• The deal would also nullify California's broadband affordability protections, including a requirement that the Verizon-Frontier merger offer a $20 monthly internet plan to low-income residents.
• California's net neutrality law includes a ban on throttling emergency services — a provision that followed Verizon slowing firefighters' connections during a major wildfire in 2018.
• The EFF is calling on Governor Newsom to reject the enforcement ban before accepting the funds.

The Price Tag on California's Internet Protections

On August 31st, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced a $1.4b broadband expansion award for California. Embedded in the deal is a provision requiring the state to refrain from enforcing any law, order, or policy that imposes restrictions on internet service providers — for 14 years. That condition would suspend California's net neutrality law, its broadband affordability protections, and its public safety provisions for the duration.

California's net neutrality law is one of the few strong state-level frameworks in the country. It bars ISPs from blocking or throttling traffic, zero-rating selected services, and charging for paid prioritization — the practice of letting companies pay for faster delivery of their content to users. Suspending it for 14 years would hand ISPs operating in California the same unchecked latitude they have in states with no equivalent protection, during a period when the federal framework has been significantly weakened.

What Gets Traded Away

The affordability consequences are concrete. Earlier this year, California's approval of the Verizon-Frontier merger included a condition requiring the merged company to offer a $20 monthly internet plan to low-income residents. The California Public Utilities Commission found the average cost of broadband across four major urban markets in the state was $51 per month in 2026. 

That $31 monthly difference, sustained over the merger requirement's duration, amounts to billions in savings for lower-income Californians — savings that would be at risk if the state cannot enforce the conditions it attached to its own approval of the deal.

The public safety dimension has a specific precedent. In 2018, Verizon throttled the data connections of California firefighters as they were battling what was at the time the largest wildfire in state history.

The incident directly shaped the net neutrality law that followed, which explicitly bans throttling emergency services. Suspending that provision leaves first responders in the same position they were in before the law existed — dependent on ISPs choosing not to throttle during emergencies rather than being legally prohibited from doing so.

Funding That Costs More Than It Delivers

The EFF's framing of the deal is straightforward: $1.4b in new connectivity infrastructure doesn’t help the Californians who need it most if they cannot afford the service once it is built, and if the legal protections that kept that service affordable and reliable are suspended for 14 years to receive it.

The ISPs receiving the funding to connect underserved communities are the same companies that left those communities underserved in the first place.

Most Californians already have no meaningful choice of ISP. California's net neutrality law is one of the few levers the state has over how those monopolies operate.

The EFF is urging Governor Newsom to reject the enforcement ban before accepting the federal funds — on the grounds that what the deal takes away is worth more, over 14 years, than what it provides.