Elizabeth Warren proposes ‘public option for broadband’

If you don’t live in a city, chances are that your options for high-speed internet are limited at best.

Naturally, Elizabeth I-have-a-plan-for-that Warren has a plan to address this. Warren unveiled a new proposal that would expand access to high-speed internet by creating a “public option for broadband.”

The presidential candidate proposed the policy as part of a wider plan to address the needs of Americans who live in rural areas. 

“I will make sure every home in America has a fiber broadband connection at a price families can afford,” Warren wrote in a post on Medium. “That means publicly-owned and operated networks — and no giant ISPs running away with taxpayer dollars.”

In order to make this a reality, Warren is proposing several specific policy changes, including:

• New laws that empower local governments to provide broadband access directly to residents.

• Creation an “Office of Broadband Access” that will give grants to cities and nonprofits to build the infrastructure necessary for high-speed internet.

• Appointing new FCC commissioners who support net neutrality and will improve broadband maps. (The FCC’s own accounting of national broadband coverage has been widely criticized.)

One of the more notable aspects of Warren’s plan is that it not only calls for increasing availability of high-speed connections, but ensuring there are affordable options. Organizations that apply for federal grants, for example, will be requires to “offer at least one plan with 100 Mbps/ 100 Mbps speeds and one discount internet plan for low-income customers with a prepaid feature or a low monthly rate.”

Warren also pledged to take on internet service providers (ISPs) that engage in anti-competitive practices to drive up the price of service and reduce access.

Though expanding access to high-speed internet is an issue that has had bipartisan support, it remains a complicated issue. Laying new fiber optic cables, required for high-speed connections, is so expensive that commercial internet providers and telecom companies have little incentive to do so. And federal funds meant to offset these costs have been mismanaged in the past. When Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress last year, several lawmakers asked the Facebook CEO if his company’s Free Basics initiative could help improve internet access for their constituents.

Warren isn’t the first politician to promise to close the digital divide. Donald Trump also made expanding broadband access a key part of his infrastructure bill. Negotiations surrounding the bill, including plans for broadband expansion, stalled earlier this year.