National Telecommunications and Information Administration

Stakeholders involved in the National Telecommunications & Information Administration's cybersecurity multistakeholder process to promote collaboration on vulnerability research disclosure today are releasing initial findings, recommendations, and resources that they hope will enhance cooperation and lead to a more secure digital ecosystem. The three stakeholder-drafted reports reflect the experience and wisdom of many of the key experts in the field, including active security researchers, experienced software companies, security companies, academics, and civil society advocates, as well as industries new to the issue. At the last meeting of NTIA's vulnerability disclosure process in November 2016, the three working groups presented their work for comment and discussion and agreed to make public a portion of their work for consideration and use.

Nearly 20 years ago, the United States promised to privatize the Internet's domain name system. Two years ago, the United States announced its intent to complete the privatization once the multistakeholder community developed a consensus plan for that transition. The transition was discussed in great deal at the IGF in Istanbul in 2014 and again last year in Joao Pessoa. Today I am pleased to appear here at IGF 2016 to report that the transition is now complete and was completed as of October 1, 2016.

The United States Government now stands on an equal footing with all other governments with respect to ICANN and the domain name system. The challenge now before us is how we can expand and evolve the multistakeholder approach. Can we build on the success of the IANA transition and the outcome of the 10-year review of the World Summit on the Information Society to tackle other Internet policy challenges? To do this, we must understand and adhere to the attributes of a successful multistakeholder model.

As this conference focuses on broadband goals for the future and setting priorities for the next Administration, particularly the possibility of a new infrastructure program, I would like to offer my evaluation of what worked well in the Obama Administration to expand broadband access and adoption.

The broadband grant programs we developed and managed at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration provided an important opportunity to invest in the nation's future and spurred private investment and economic development. We learned a lot and we continue to share those lessons with communities around the nation through our BroadbandUSA program. I am very proud of the solid foundation NTIA and the Obama Administration laid over the last eight years to connect communities across America and to expand the adoption of broadband services by many Americans. But it is clear that there is more work to be done, and we need to continue to learn and build on our successes. Going forward, NTIA has an enthusiastic team of experts in place who stand ready to work with communities, policymakers and all of you in this room to continue building out the digital infrastructure needed to help compete in the global economy and narrow the digital divide. As I depart NTIA in a few weeks, my hope is that NTIA's strong record of accomplishment of the last eight years will continue.

To assist communities, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration released a toolkit for local officials and citizen groups to use as a guide for building successful public-private partnerships. Using Partnerships to Power a Smart City: A Toolkit for Local Communities identifies factors to consider when developing a partnership -- including what to look for in a partner, assessing each partner's contribution, and guidance on how to structure the most fruitful partnership agreements. The toolkit also includes checklists to help communities as they work through the planning process.

When developing the toolkit, NTIA drew from its experience administering the $4 billion in grants funded under the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). The expertise it developed through overseeing BTOP led it to launch its BroadbandUSA program, which provides technical assistance to communities seeking to expand broadband deployment and adoption. NTIA's goal is to share the knowledge we have gained working with a wide range of broadband stakeholders during the last seven years so that more communities can benefit. By equipping communities with the know-how to build long-lasting partnerships, we hope to contribute to the vibrant and sustainable smart cities of the future.

[Commentary] As the US workforce continues to adapt to the digital economy, it is critical that communities and their anchor institutions such as schools, libraries and hospitals have access to high-speed broadband infrastructure to ensure that working-age adults can access educational opportunities, build job skills and find employment.

This is why the National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA) put so much emphasis on connecting community anchor institutions as part of NTIA’s broadband grant program funded by the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. As part of that program, NTIA’s grantees connected more than 25,000 community anchor institutions to middle mile networks funded with the help of NTIA grants. Communities that lack broadband access have struggled to attract and to retain businesses and have placed their residents at a disadvantage in finding and training for new jobs, often forcing workers and their families to leave the area to find work. NTIA’s BroadbandUSA program can help communities address this need for broadband. BroadbandUSA provides guidance and technical assistance to communities interested in harnessing the power of broadband to increase economic growth opportunities for their residents. This support includes helping to develop strategies to improve broadband access and digital literacy, advising on the planning and execution of broadband expansion projects, and sharing best practices from NTIA’s broadband experts.

[Jennifer Duane is senior advisor for broadband and public safety at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration]

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) has been working to better understand how to factor in clutter when analyzing and predicting the behavior of radio waves.

ITS engineer Chriss Hammerschmidt presented a paper earlier this week on "Extracting Clutter Metrics From Mobile Propagation Measurements in the 1755-1780 MHz Band" at MILCOM 2016, an international conference for military communications. The paper describes spectrum measurements ITS took during 2015 to inform and validate new radio wave propagation prediction models. Propagation models, mathematical algorithms that predict the behavior of radio waves, are an essential enabler for spectrum sharing. ITS and its predecessor labs within the Department of Commerce have been developing and improving propagation models since about 1909. But increased demand for spectrum, advances in technology, and the tremendous increase in the everyday spectrum usage (sometimes referred to as the "noise floor"), means that there are tremendous potential benefits from more research and testing to improve the accuracy of existing propagation models. As the telecommunications industry moves into the future with new technologies like 5G, ever more detailed models of clutter loss will be required to facilitate spectrum sharing.

This set of measurements is a first step on the path to making spectrum sharing as efficient as possible. Tremendous opportunities remain, however, for investment in propagation research and testing to achieve even greater efficiencies in our use of limited spectrum resources.

One of the major advantages of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's surveys on computer and Internet use stems from their very large sample size--approximately 53,000 households representing more than 120,000 people. This allows us to break out results by demographics like age, race, income, and education, as well as by state of residence.

Oct 27, we are launching a new feature of our Data Explorer tool enabling users to visualize NTIA's computer and Internet use data by state, with metrics displayed in a national map. Users can easily adjust the map to reflect different datasets, while pressing the "Play" button cycles through datasets to show how the country has changed over time. The map view is available for every metric in Data Explorer, such as use of various devices, locations of Internet use, and online activities.

We have finally fulfilled the promise the United States made nearly two decades ago to privatize the Internet domain name system. We took the final steps with the expiration of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions contract with Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) as of October 1 and last week by modifying our cooperative agreement with Verisign to remove National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA's) role in authorizing changes to the authoritative root zone file. I know many of you understand the significance of this historic moment in the evolution of the Internet. But I think it is also important to understand it in the context of the development of the multistakeholder approach to Internet governance and policymaking. This transition is a powerful testament to the strength of the multistakeholder model and what it can achieve.

After the community completed the IANA transition plan, there were those who tried to delay or block the transition at the eleventh hour. Of course, there will always be those who are not happy with the outcome. But if you believe in the process, you must respect the process. However, you do not show respect for the multistakeholder process when you wait until the process is over and the community has reached consensus and then propose major changes in the plan without ever asking the community to consider such an option. You do not show respect for the multistakeholder process when you do not participate for two years and then afterward say you object to the outcome.

On September 30, policy staff from National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will be participating in an annual policy research conference where they will be discussing important research about Americans' computer and Internet use habits. They will be presenting two working papers at the 44th Research Conference on Communications, Information and Internet Policy (link is external) (TPRC), an annual conference on information, communications, and technology policy, which brings together researchers, policymakers, and advocates from the public, academic, and private sectors.

These papers shed light on important policy issues relying on data collected though NTIA's Computer and Internet Use Supplement to the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS Supplement). In the first working paper, Trust in Internet Privacy and Security and Online Activity (link is external), NTIA staff used data from the most recent CPS Supplement, which included questions on household privacy and security concerns, to identify certain indicators of distrust in security online. Their analysis reveals that Internet-using households with either serious concerns with Internet privacy or prior experiences with a security breach or harassment were more likely to report that they refrained from a range of online activities, after controlling for other factors.

Access to ubiquitous and affordable high-speed Internet is essential to many aspects of modern society. The Internet can assist in activities like accessing employment opportunities, healthcare options, affordable housing, and educational resources. However, millions of Americans still do not use the Internet, and even among those who do, the speed, quality and form of access can vary greatly.

We seek to better understand the challenges faced by non-adopters and under-connected Americans using new data from the July 2015 Computer and Internet Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey. We find that the nature of the digital divide is evolving. As usage habits and technologies change, new disparities are appearing, even while others gradually narrow. New divides based on the cost of owning multiple Internet-enabled devices appear to be surfacing. To better understand the changing needs of underserved communities, we examine three important and emerging trends.

First, we analyze survey data from Internet non-adopters. NTIA added new questions to its 2015 survey in order to better understand why households report not using the Internet. We allowed households to report multiple reasons for not using the Internet, enabling us to better understand why some households are not online. We also asked whether households lacking home Internet service would subscribe to such a service if it were offered at a lower price.

Second, we look specifically at one group of low adopters: rural communities. Americans in rural communities may face a disadvantage based on cumulative impact of various barriers to Internet use. For example, rural areas often face high broadband deployment costs, and may lack local facilities that offer public Internet access (e.g., community centers). Together, these factors may further depress Internet use in rural areas among those demographic groups already facing disparities, such low-income households. To understand these issues, we compare Internet use for similar demographic groups in rural and urban areas. Research suggests that, particularly among groups traditionally affected by the digital divide, Internet adoption rates are lower in rural areas.

Third, we focus on the diversification of devices used to access the Internet. The proliferation of devices means more people have more alternatives for getting online. However, this trend may open up a new digital divide, based on whether an individual has access to the right type of device for a particular task. Using a smartphone to access the Internet, for example, has qualitative strengths and weaknesses compared to using a laptop computer. To better understand this new divide, we investigate device use, particularly for those most likely to be on the wrong side of the digital divide.

Stimulating greater Internet use is an important and widely-prioritized public policy goal. In considering the best strategies to reach this goal, it is important to have a full, nuanced, and granular picture of the digital divide. Looking ahead, policy makers need to better understand how this divide is evolving with Internet and technology usage. Our paper aims to address these questions.