California May Trade Your Open Internet for $1.86 Billion

California regulators are set to vote Tuesday on whether to accept $1.86 billion in federal broadband money to bring high-speed internet to rural and low-income areas. The money comes from BEAD, a $42 billion federal program to expand internet access. There's a catch. To get the cash, the state must agree not to enforce its own net neutrality law — the rule that says internet providers like AT&T and Verizon must treat every website the same. California won that law after a years-long court fight.

Net neutrality is simple in practice: your provider can't slow down, block, or charge extra to deliver certain websites. Without it, a company that also sells TV service could make a rival's streaming site load slowly. The Trump administration says states taking federal broadband dollars must drop those rules for up to 14 years — and not just in the neighborhoods getting new wires, but everywhere in the state.

That's why nearly 30 advocacy groups wrote to Governor Gavin Newsom and state officials this week, urging them to defend the law. One signer, attorney Paul Goodman, called the vote "the beginning of the end," arguing it becomes much harder to win a court fight once the state has banked the money. He wants California to delay the vote and sue instead. California and Illinois are the last two states that haven't finalized their plans.

The state utilities commission calls the vote a routine step to ratify a plan already sent to Washington. But the condition reaches beyond net neutrality: it also blocks California from capping broadband prices or imposing utility-style rules on internet service. If the vote passes, Californians may not notice changes overnight — but protections could quietly fade, leaving providers more room to decide what your internet looks like.