Does everyone deserve high-speed internet? Bernie Sanders thinks so. The democratic presidential candidate has unveiled a $150 billion plan called “High-Speed Internet for All,” which is somewhat self-explanatory: it’s a proposal that aims to bring premium net access (i.e., 100 Mbps downstream/10 Mbps upstream) to everyone in the country. The legislation would also take aim at internet and cable monopolies by using existing antitrust law to “bar service providers from also providing content and unwind anticompetitive vertical conglomerates.”
As part of the new plan, Sanders defines “broadband” as 100 Mbps down and 10 Mbps up, which is significantly higher than the Federal Communications Commission standard of 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up. If elected president, Sanders said he would also work to restore net neutrality and ban internet and cable companies from instituting data caps and throttling consumer access to the internet.