National Telecommunications and Information Administration

In Nov 2019, across all fifty states and the District of Columbia, Census interviewers talked to 52,000 households for this comprehensive survey, which collects data every two years on who goes online, what computing devices and technologies people use, and what challenges prevent some Americans from taking full advantage of the digital age. This latest NTIA Internet Use Survey is the 15^th data collection commissioned by NTIA and administered by the Census Bureau. The questionnaire,

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration launched the Minority Broadband Initiative (MBI), working with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to ensure all Americans can participate in the digital economy. NTIA will build upon its relationships with HBCUs, as community anchor institutions, to leverage minority stakeholder engagement in finding new opportunities for broadband deployment.

Internet use among Hispanic Americans has continued to grow, according to NTIA data, narrowing a racial disparity that has existed since NTIA began tracking adoption through its Internet Use Surveys in 1998. The proportion of Hispanic Americans using the Internet has risen from 61 percent in 2013 and 66 percent in 2015 to 72 percent in 2017, NTIA data show. Although this is still less than the 80 percent of non-Hispanic Whites online in 2017, the gap has begun to narrow.

In 2018, Congress asked NTIA to develop a National Broadband Availability Map to determine which parts of the country remain unconnected. Working with an initial group of eight states, NTIA released a pilot version of the map, a geographic information system platform that allows for the visualization of federal, state, and commercially available data sets.

Doug Kinkoph is Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information. He also serves as the Associate Administrator of NTIA’s Office of Telecommunications and Information Applications (OTIA) within the U.S. Department of Commerce, where he directs the BroadbandUSA initiative to promote broadband deployment and adoption across communities nationwide. He has been responsible for overseeing the $4 billion Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) and State Broadband Initiative program, resulting from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

In our most recent Internet Use Survey, conducted in 2017, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration included questions about participation in the sharing economy for the first time. The results show that a third of Internet users in the US reported selling goods or requesting or offering services from others through online platforms.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration sent guidance to executive branch departments and agencies for reviewing current spectrum frequency assignments. NTIA is requiring agencies to initially review two bands: 3100-3550 MHz and 7125-8400 MHz. The agencies must provide the information over the next six to nine months. NTIA will then solicit input from the agencies and other stakeholders on the next set of bands to be reviewed on a recurring and rolling basis. The data collection efforts include four components.