New York’s law requiring Internet service providers to offer broadband for $15 or $20 a month has spurred legislative efforts in other states to guarantee affordable service for people with low incomes. So far, legislators in Vermont, Massachusetts, and California have proposed laws inspired by the New York requirement.

Despite industry attempts to block the New York law and other broadband regulations, courts have made it clear that states can impose stricter requirements on Internet service when the Federal Communications Commission isn’t regulating Internet providers as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act. That’s the situation right now after a federal appeals court blocked a Biden-era FCC order that classified ISPs as common carriers and imposed net neutrality rules.

Even if the FCC had won that case, it likely would have deregulated the industry again under Brendan Carr, the new chair selected by President Trump. Broadband was also deregulated at the federal level during Trump’s first term when then-Chairman Ajit Pai led a vote to rescind net neutrality rules and Title II regulation.