NTIA calls for Strong Digital Discrimination Rules

Having studied barriers to Internet use for the last three decades, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration is intimately familiar with the longstanding disparities that keep far too many Americans from realizing the full benefits of modern communications and information technologies. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act represents a generational opportunity to address these disparities; maximum success in our shared mission requires NTIA, the Federal Communications Commission, and many others to work in concert as we advance the programs and policies that will move our nation toward digital equity. To that end, the NTIA addresses three important questions in this proceeding. Specifically, NTIA recommends that the FCC (1) include in its definition of “digital discrimination of access” policies and practices that disparately impact protected groups; (2) clarify that actions in compliance with a particular program’s requirements (including but not limited to the BEAD Program) are presumptively lawful under the digital discrimination rules; and (3) continue to focus FCC data collection efforts on information obtained from broadband ISPs, while leveraging the resources of other agencies for other data needs.