Sen. Cory Booker is leaping into the political fight over whether to let cities build and operate their own Internet service.
On Thursday, the New Jersey Democrat will introduce a bill that would help local towns set up public alternatives to big Internet providers such as Comcast or Verizon. It would amend the nation's signature telecom law—the Communications Act—to make it illegal for states to prohibit municipal broadband through new regulations or state legislation.
Booker said more cities should aspire to be like Chattanooga, Tennessee, which offers public broadband plans at speeds of one gigabit per second for $70 a month. But many are held back, he said, by “industry that wants to maintain monopolies in many ways.”
