# Broadband Broadband is high-speed, always-on internet access — delivered over cable, fiber, DSL, fixed wireless, or satellite — as opposed to the slow dial-up it replaced. It is the wired (or fixed) service that a home [[Wi-Fi]] router typically distributes to devices. The US Federal Communications Commission periodically redefines the minimum speeds that count as "broadband," a technical-sounding decision with real policy stakes, since the threshold determines which areas are officially "unserved" and eligible for subsidy. ## Why it matters here Broadband is the entry point to several genuine policy fights, distinct from the conspiracy-tinged ones around [[5G]]. **Net neutrality.** Whether internet providers must treat all traffic equally — or may throttle, block, or charge tolls for prioritized delivery — is the [[Net Neutrality]] debate, one of the longest-running US tech-policy battles. It maps imperfectly onto partisan lines: Democratic FCCs have generally imposed neutrality rules (and reclassified broadband as a regulated utility), Republican FCCs have generally repealed them as overreach, and the rules have whipsawed with each administration. It is a clean case of the regulation-versus-deregulation divide playing out over infrastructure. **The digital divide.** Reliable broadband is now effectively required for work, school, healthcare, and government services, which reframes it from a consumer product into something closer to a utility or right. Rural and low-income access gaps became a bipartisan concern, with large federal subsidy programs (e.g., the BEAD program funded by the 2021 infrastructure law) aimed at universal service — though the *means* (public subsidy, municipal broadband, provider mandates) remain contested along the usual lines. **Concentration.** US broadband is often a local monopoly or duopoly, which connects it to the [[Antitrust]] and market-power themes the vault tracks elsewhere. ## See Also - [[Net Neutrality]] — the equal-treatment fight - [[Wi-Fi]] — how broadband reaches most devices - [[5G]] — the wireless alternative and competitor - [[Antitrust]] — broadband's local-monopoly problem