Cable lobby says it hates Biden plan to expand broadband and lower prices

Enlarge / Cable lobbyist Michael Powell speaks at a conference in September 2015. (credit: Getty Images | Larry Busacca )

President Biden's plan to expand broadband access and lower prices is, predictably, facing bitter opposition from cable companies that want to maintain the status quo.

NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, which represents Comcast, Charter, Cox, and other cable companies, argued that Biden's plan is "a serious wrong turn." NCTA is particularly mad that Biden wants to expand municipal broadband networks that could fill gaps where there's no high-speed broadband from private ISPs and lower prices by providing competition to cable companies that usually dominate their regional territories.

"The White House has elected to go big on broadband infrastructure, but it risks taking a serious wrong turn in discarding decades of successful policy by suggesting that the government is better suited than private-sector technologists to build and operate the Internet," NCTA CEO Michael Powell wrote in a statement.

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