In President Biden’s broadband plan, cable is in for the fight of its life

Comcast, Charter, AT&T and their respective industry associations have spent years beating back municipal broadband networks in states across the country, lobbying for laws that prohibit such networks and arguing that government-funded broadband puts the thumb on the scale of competition. With the President Joe Biden infrastructure plan and its potentially $100 billion in federal funding on the line, the last thing the cable lobby wants is to see those restrictions lifted and funding diverted to cities, not their own coffers. Not only that, but the Biden plan calls for funding "future-proof" networks, which, roughly translated from government-speak, means fiber, not cable. "Cable is treating [this plan] like hair on fire," said Benton Senior Fellow and Public Advocate Gigi Sohn.

Across the country, advocates for locally-owned broadband — a loosely affiliated network of fiber providers, digital equity nonprofits, labor unions, churches, educators and municipalities — are girding for battle. Enabling municipalities and local communities to build their own networks, they argue, removes the profit incentives that cable giants have, driving down costs and leading to reinvestment in the community. The Biden plan, they say, is an opportunity unlike any they've seen before to put that idea into practice nationwide. "This is a moment where we just have to get more active than we've ever been," said Greta Byrum, director of nonprofit Community Tech NY.