National Telecommunications and Information Administration

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded more than $117 million in the second batch of grants from the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund’s second Notice of Funding Opportunity. The $1.5 billion Wireless Innovation Fund supports the development of open and interoperable wireless networks.

Every day at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), we work to promote technology in the service of human progress. That has been the throughline of our actions on Internet connectivity, spectrum and tech policy.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has recommended for award more than $250 million to 24 organizations to support digital skills and inclusion projects in communities across the country. The funding will support 24 projects across 39 states and territories. Awards will be issued following budget review and processing. 

The principal purpose of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program is to deploy broadband service to all unserved and underserved locations. To achieve this goal, Eligible Entities (states) may fund a variety of technologies that satisfy the BEAD Program’s minimum technical requirements. The BEAD Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) establishes a clear hierarchy of technologies that states must apply when awarding subgrants for Unserved and Underserved Service Projects: (1) Priority Broadband Projects (end-to-end fiber); (2) other Reliable Broadband Service (RBS) projects;

The federal government has obligated all $42.45 billion in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding to states and territories. This means that, subject to the terms and conditions of their awards, Eligible Entities can access their BEAD allocation to connect every resident to affordable, reliable high-speed Internet service.

We are thrilled to announce that all agency requests for funding to complete the Lower 3 GHz and 7/8 GHz band studies have been approved by the Technical Panel established by the Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act. The Lower 3 GHz and 7/8 GHz bands pose both promise and unprecedented complexity for evaluating repurposing possibilities that meet those needs.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved and recommended for award applications from Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Maryland, North Dakota, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, allowing them to request access to more than $60.6 million to implement their Digital Equity Plans. With this announcement, NTIA has approved and recommended for award all state and U.S. Territory applications for the first round of funding from the State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program.

In September, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Census Bureau announced an ambitious new initiative to improve our understanding of Internet use at a local level. Local Estimates of Internet Adoption (Project LEIA) is aimed at producing more granular Internet adoption estimates using a combination of existing data and statistical modeling techniques known as “small area estimation.” Improved and more timely estimates of Internet adoption will

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is seeking information and public comment on the potential impact on the GPS L1 signal at 1575.42 MHz of the increasing deployment of mobile devices capable of operating on satellite systems in the L-band at 1610-1660.5 MHz. Under current FCC rules, these devices are permitted to operate subject to a substantially less restrictive out-of-band emission limit than similar devices transmitting on the same frequencies and connecting to terrestrial base station systems.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that up to $450 million in funding will be made available for software-focused Open RAN innovation. This is the third Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) from the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund. This NOFO will invest in software solutions to drive adoption of open and interoperable wireless networks.