Mayor Pete's Commitment to America's Heartland: Internet for All

Mayor Pete Buttigieg's policies to uplift rural America includes an ambitious and holistic Internet for All initiative to ensure all communities have affordable access to this necessary technology to create businesses, access health care, and expand opportunities for students to learn and thrive.

• Mayor Pete will ensure full high-speed broadband coverage with an $80 billion Internet For All initiative that will expand access to all currently unserved and underserved communities.
  • He will invest in new ways to more accurately map which communities lack broadband or wireless in partnership with the private and nonprofit sectors. 
  • In regions private companies won’t cover, he will invest in public and community-based options to guarantee that broadband will be built out.
  • He will create a Broadband Innovation Incubator office to catalyze community-owned networks.
  • He will work with Congress to pass legislation to embrace community-driven broadband initiatives.
• Close the “homework gap” within the first term. He will support the Federal Communications Commission initiatives to streamline approval processes and leverage the federal E-Rate program so that every classroom has access to world-class Internet speeds.
• Upgrade our most essential public safety network—our 911 system. Every 911 call center and first responder should have broadband connectivity.
• Restore net neutrality. 
• Speed up next generation wireless expansion. A C-Band auction could raise tens of billions that might be able to be invested back into improving rural broadband. 
• Foster a new generation of commercial satellite networks to expand Internet access. 
• Build the first network of “connected” rural communities by the end of the first term to enable rural Americans to have reliable, safe, and equitable infrastructure and public services. Pete will transform and expand the Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge Initiative to rural areas and double the National Science Foundation’s Smart and Connected Communities Initiative. Ultimately, this will drive 5-10 times the federal grant money in private investment to dramatically upgrade and modernize critical infrastructure and services.