National Telecommunications and Information Administration

What are the best practices for isolating an interfering signal and tracking it to its origin, and what should the consequences be for the offending transmitter to prevent future interference? Such legal and regulatory issues will be explored at 2016’s International Symposium on Advanced Radio Technologies (ISART), on Aug. 1-3 in Westminster (CO).

ISART is sponsored by the Center for Advanced Communications, a joint effort between National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). ISART – now in its 15th year – will once again bring together the world's experts on advanced radio systems development. The theme of ISART 2016 is Spectrum Forensics, defined as the spectrum measurements that support interference monitoring, investigation, and enforcement. ISART 2016 will be particularly appealing to engineers, mathematicians, and others who are interested in understanding the application of specific measurement and monitoring techniques to spectrum sharing analyses. During the three-day conference, participants will hear presentations that explore the implications of technological advancements on policies related to the forensic analysis of radio interference; hear about the results of spectrum monitoring efforts in Europe, the United States, and Canada; discuss research in spectrum monitoring using unmanned aircraft systems; hear a report on the state-of-the-art in the technologies and standards that make spectrum forensics possible; and identify gaps where future development and standardization are needed.

The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) and the National Interagency Incident Communications Division (NIICD) are responsible for coordinating communications when federal agencies are managing wildfires. Portable radios, which require access to radio frequency spectrum, are the primary communications tool for firefighters. As crews respond, Communications Duty Officers at the NIICD work to secure the needed frequencies – in a matter of hours.

The NIICD has access to about 50 frequencies as a baseline, and can secure more by working with frequency managers at the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service, the Department of the Interior and the Federal Aviation Administration, as well as federal agency members that make up NTIA’s Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee and Frequency Assignment Subcommittee. Some of those baseline frequencies are “clear” – meaning there are no other users – but others are shared by more than one federal agency. Frequency managers must ensure there is no interference as firefighters begin to use a particular frequency. The NIICD is a partnership between the five federal agencies that are responsible for managing fires on more than 676 million acres of land: the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Park Service, and US Fish and Wildlife Service, along with the US Forest Service.

The US Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) issued a Public Notice outlining the alternative path states could take to connect to the First Responder Network Authority’s (FirstNet) nationwide public safety broadband network. The notice provides preliminary guidance on the rigorous process NTIA is developing to review applications for its State Alternative Plan Program (SAPP) from states seeking to deploy their own radio access networks (RAN), which are the facilities needed to connect first responders to the core of FirstNet’s broadband network.

The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 established FirstNet as an independent authority within NTIA and directed it to develop and deploy a nationwide public safety broadband network. The Act requires FirstNet to offer to build the RAN in each state, but it also gives states the option to assume the cost and responsibility of RANs on their own. The notice lays out NTIA’s initial views on the comprehensive, multi-step process outlined in the Act for a state seeking authorization to deploy a proposed alternative RAN. In order to operate its own RAN, a state will need to negotiate a spectrum capacity lease with FirstNet. In addition, the state may also apply to NTIA for grant funds for the construction of its RAN. The notice provides the preliminary criteria NTIA will use to evaluate such requests. The public is invited to submit comments on this notice by August 18, 2016.

I come here today to speak out for freedom. Specifically, Internet freedom. I come here to speak out for free speech and civil liberties. I come here to speak out in favor of the transition of the U.S. government’s stewardship of the domain name system to the global multistakeholder community. And I come here to speak out against what former NTIA Administrator John Kneuer has so aptly called the “hyperventilating hyperbole” that has emerged since ICANN transmitted the consensus transition plan to us last March. Protecting Internet freedom and openness has been a key criterion for the IANA transition from the day we announced it in March 2014.

The best way to preserve Internet freedom is to depend on the community of stakeholders who own and operate, transact business and exchange information over the myriad of networks that comprise the Internet. Free expression is protected by the open, decentralized nature of the Internet, the neutral manner in which the technical aspects of the Internet are managed and the commitment of stakeholders to maintain openness. Freedom House reported that “Internet freedom around the world has declined for the fifth consecutive year ...” Its prescription for defending Internet freedom is to encourage the U.S. government to “complet[e] the transition to a fully privatized Domain Name System.” What will not be effective to protect Internet freedom is to continue the IANA functions contract. That contract is too limited in scope to be a tool for protecting Internet freedom. It simply designates ICANN to perform the technical IANA functions of managing the database of protocol parameters, allocating IP numbers and processing changes to the root zone file. It does not grant NTIA any authority over ICANN’s day-to-day operations or the organization’s accountability to the stakeholder community. The transition plan goes beyond any authority that NTIA or the U.S. government has today by enhancing the power of stakeholders to ensure ICANN’s accountability. For example, the U.S. government has no ability to reject an ICANN budget or to remove an ICANN board member—two of the new enumerated community powers.

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, invites the general public and other federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on the proposed framework for the community connectivity self-assessment tool. This framework is an element of the Community Connectivity Initiative, which is one of the commitments of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) through its work with the Broadband Opportunity Council, which President Barack Obama established to review actions the federal government could take to reduce regulatory barriers to broadband deployment, competition, investment, and adoption.

The Community Connectivity Initiative will support communities across the country with tools to help accelerate local broadband planning and deployment efforts. The community connectivity self-assessment tool will provide a framework of benchmarks and indicators on broadband access, adoption, policy and use, helping community leaders identify critical broadband needs and connect them with expertise and resources. Written comments must be submitted on or before August 29, 2016.

The Board of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) will hold a Special Meeting via telephone conference on August 15, 2014.

The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 created FirstNet as an independent authority within the NTIA. The Act directs FirstNet to establish a single nationwide, interoperable public safety broadband network.

The FirstNet Board, which is responsible for making strategic decisions regarding FirstNet’s operations, may, by a majority vote, close a portion of the Special Meeting as necessary to preserve the confidentiality of commercial or financial information that is privileged or confidential, to discuss personnel matters, or to discuss legal matters affecting FirstNet, including pending or potential litigation; otherwise the meeting is publically accessible by dial-in.

[Smith is Chief Counsel, National Telecommunications and Information Administration]

Bart Gibbon is an information technology engineer at National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s remote site operations in Gettysburg (PA), he has worked since he joined the agency in 2005.

He spends his days in a different setting than the typical NTIA employee, but he says his work in the information technology department is just like that of any IT engineer.

Until recently, Gibbon was the sole IT employee at the Gettysburg office. The main purpose behind the facility is “continuity of operations,” Gibbon explains. Employees like Gibbon work to ensure that in the event of emergency, key NTIA employees can transfer to the site and continue their work.

The US Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is working to ensure our nation’s first responders have access to the most advanced communications when responding to an emergency or natural disaster.

NTIA is working closely with the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet), an independent authority within the agency, as it works towards creating a nationwide public safety broadband network. In support of that effort, NTIA also is working to ensure states are prepared to take full advantage of this network once it is deployed.

[Fletcher, Associate Administrator, Office of Public Safety Communications]

We applaud the announcements from the Application Developers Alliance, Intuit and TRUSTe that they have released enhanced privacy notices for mobile applications, which are based on the code of conduct developed through a multistakeholder process convened by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

This is an important step that will give consumers more information about what data is being collected via mobile apps and empower consumers to protect their privacy. We are pleased that others have tested and implemented notices, including ACT: The App Association and Lookout, and we encourage other companies to implement similar privacy disclosures.

I want to focus on what has been happening in response to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) announcement in March that we intend to transition our stewardship role with respect to the Internet domain name system (DNS).

What is NTIA’s role today with respect to the domain name system? And what is changing?

This transition is the last step in a process that started 16 years ago when the US government committed to allowing the private sector to take leadership for domain name system management. In 1998, the Department of Commerce designated the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to perform what are known as the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).

First, as ICANN has performed the IANA functions over the years, it has matured as an organization and has taken important steps to improve its accountability and transparency as well as its technical competence.

Second, as witnessed so strongly in the past several months, international support has continued to grow for the multistakeholder model of Internet governance.

And as a result, many of the Internet’s key stakeholders support this transition. NTIA's contract with ICANN simply designates it to perform the IANA functions.

Neither ICANN nor the United States pays anything to each other under this contract. Now that ICANN has demonstrated its ability to perform these functions with the support of the community, there is no longer a need for the United States to designate ICANN to perform these functions and we are not obligated to maintain a contract when it is no longer needed.