Other Democratic front-runners have broadband plans, but Sanders’ is more radical—and expensive—than his rivals’. Former vice president Joe Biden has called for $20 billion to expand broadband infrastructure in rural America, and wants to triple funding for rural broadband access programs. South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg touts an $80 billion "Internet for All" plan and promises to restore net neutrality . But Sanders’ call for the Federal Communications Commission to cap broadband prices goes beyond even Warren’s relatively expansive plan, which aimed to achieve affordability by increasing competition in the broadband market.
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Sanders’ plan would ban internet service providers from also providing content. Under his plan, both AT&T, which owns Time Warner, and Comcast, which owns NBC-Universal, would presumably have to separate their roles as access providers and content producers. Warren told The Verge that she wants to split Comcast and NBC-Universal and said she opposed AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner.The FCC has already spent billions on programs like Connect America Fund, which helps pay for broadband infrastructure in underserved communities, and the Universal Service Fund, which subsidizes access to telecommunications services, but Sanders and Warren argue that too much of the money from these programs go to large, for-profit carriers. Sanders wants to expand funding for municipal, nonprofit, and cooperatively owned broadband providers through the Green New Deal and calls for the funds to go toward creating union jobs, echoing Biden's infrastructure plan.
Citing outages following Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Maria, and the threat of climate change, Sanders also wants both new and existing internet and telecommunications infrastructure to stand up to natural disasters.
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