Elizabeth Warren proposes $85 billion grant for expanding rural internet access

Senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has announced a plan to dramatically expand internet access in rural communities, aiming to give “every home in America” fiber broadband at an affordable price. Her proposal includes an $85 billion grant program for nonprofits and local governments to build fiber networks, as well as protections for cities that want to run their own broadband services. And it would overhaul a deeply flawed reporting system that’s hidden huge service gaps across the country.

Warren laid out her “public option for broadband” in a policy paper released this morning. It’s designed to encourage locally and publicly operated broadband networks while reducing the power of big internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon, which have little incentive to expand into many smaller communities but still lobby for legally protected near-monopolies. Rural Americans have markedly lower access to high-quality internet service, and the problem is particularly bad on tribal lands.

Warren’s plan would create an Office of Broadband Access in her newly founded Department of Economic Development. The broadband office would distribute $85 billion to utility cooperatives, nonprofit organizations, tribes, and cities or counties, giving them funds to lay fiber in “unserved areas, underserved areas, or areas with minimal competition.” In return, these groups would offer a plan that reached 100 Mbps as well as one “discount” plan for low-income customers. At least $5 billion of that grant money would go specifically to tribal nations.

Warren also wants to overturn state laws that limit or ban municipal broadband networks — currently on the books in 26 states. That’s not a new idea, but a bill addressing it stalled in Congress last year. Warren wants the Federal Communications Commission to restore net neutrality and require more accurate and detailed reports from ISPs — another issue that’s been widely discussed among tech policy experts.

Warren isn’t the only one with a big plan to improve rural internet access. Fellow candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) has included universal internet service in a trillion-dollar infrastructure proposal, and she’s actively pushed for better broadband maps. Former Vice President Joe Biden pledged $20 billion toward building out rural broadband infrastructure, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has promised high-quality universal broadband, Sen. Kirstin Gillibrand (D-NY) just announced a $60 billion rural broadband investment plan, and more long-shot candidates like former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) have invoked the issue on the campaign trail. As Recode notes, though, this latest plan is unusually (if unsurprisingly, for Warren) detailed.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, has promoted nascent 5G networks as a solution for the digital divide. It’s also proposed a $20.4 billion “Rural Digital Opportunity Fund” to improve rural access to high-speed broadband — although that plan’s overall efficacy remains uncertain.

Update 5:30PM ET: Added Kirsten Gillibrand’s rural broadband pledge.