National Telecommunications and Information Administration

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.

Access to high-speed Internet has become a necessity for communities and businesses, and the latest data from the National Broadband Map shows that broadband continues to be available to more Americans than ever. Broadband drives economic growth and innovation -- including advances in health care, education, and public safety.

Considering wireline and wireless technologies together, the slowest broadband speeds are nearly ubiquitously available, and access to very fast broadband (over 100 Mbps) has now reached two-thirds of Americans.

The data, as of December 31, 2013, shows that 99 percent of Americans have access to wired and/or wireless broadband at advertised speeds of 6 Mbps downstream and 1.5 Mbps up, though this number drops to 89 percent when considering wireline broadband alone.

[Neville is Director of NTIA’s State Broadband Initiative]

The US Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration has published the federal agencies’ transition plans for vacating or sharing spectrum bands set to be auctioned by the Federal Communications Commission in the fall of 2014.

The agencies’ transition plans provide information on the 1695-1710 MHz and 1755-1780 MHz bands, known as the “AWS-3” bands. The plans include timelines outlining when agencies will discontinue use of the bands or be ready to share them with non-federal users and provide estimates of the cost of relocating or sharing in these bands.

NTIA and the FCC will soon be releasing a joint public notice detailing the coordination procedures between AWS-3 licensees and the agencies following the FCC auction. The FCC’s auction of these bands along with the 2155-2180 MHz band is scheduled to begin on November 13, 2014.

The United States country code top-level domain name (.us ccTLD) is managed on behalf of the US government through a contract overseen by the US Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

In March 2014, NTIA entered into a new contract with Neustar to operate the .us ccTLD. The.us contract requires the creation of a process for Neustar to solicit input from stakeholders on the management of .us to continually improve and enhance the user experience and utility of the usTLD space. Neustar has proposed the creation of the usTLD Stakeholder Council to fulfill the requirement and meet this important goal.

The Notice of Inquiry, published by Neustar, solicits input from all usTLD stakeholders on the proposed composition of the Stakeholder Council, the principles and policies that will guide the Stakeholder Council and the operating procedures for the Council. Those who wish to provide input have until Aug 16, 2014, to submit comments.

The US Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced the appointment of experts from the private and nonprofit sectors to serve on the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee (CSMAC), which provides advice and expertise on a wide-range of spectrum policy and technical issues.

Committee members, appointed by the Secretary of Commerce for two-year terms, will provide the Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information with advice and recommendations aimed at strengthening the US global leadership role in wireless technology services and innovation while supporting the country’s homeland security, national defense, and other critical government missions.

The committee will be co-chaired by Larry Alder, director of access strategy at Google, and Mark Gibson, senior director of business development at Comsearch. Both Adler and Gibson previously served on CSMAC and are among the 17 returning members to the 28-member panel.

The new members are Audrey L. Allison, director of frequency management services, for Boeing; Michael S Chartier, director of spectrum technology at Intel's public policy group; Harold Feld SVP of public policy at Public Knowledge; Dr Paul Kolodzy, an independent telecommunications consultant; Dr Robert Kubik, director of communications policy and regulatory affairs for Samsung Electronics America; Dr. Giulia McHenry, an associate with The Brattle Group; Charla Rath, VP of wireless policy development at Verizon; Dr Jeffrey Reed, director of wireless at Virginia Tech; Kurt Schaubach, VP and CTO, National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative; Steve Sharkey, senior director, chief engineering and technology policy in T-Mobile’s government affairs office; Mariam Sorond, VP of technology development for DISH.

Isha Carry has spent her entire career at the Commerce Department, but one could hardly accuse her of being complacent. Carry began working at Commerce at age 16 in the US Travel and Tourism Administration.

In her 22 years with the department, she has held several positions with many different responsibilities. Her experience ranges from serving as program assistant at the International Trade Administration (ITA) to IT specialist in the Office of the Secretary.

Carry currently works in National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Office of Policy Coordination and Management (OPCM). She uses her varied skills and experience to fill several roles for OPCM, and is often considered the “go-to” person to get things done.

Her day could range from dealing with property management and FirstNet’s move to new workspace to production of NTIA’s Congressional budget submission. Carry is looking forward to expanding her role in the development and implementation of NTIA’s budget in the fiscal year 2015.

From September through December 2013, BTOP Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) recipients:

• Deployed or upgraded more than 760 miles of fiber. Since the program began, recipients have deployed more than 112,000 miles of fiber.
• Connected more than 900 community anchor institutions. Thus far, recipients have connected approximately 21,000 total community anchor institutions.
• Generated approximately 1,600 new broadband adoption subscribers, bringing the total number of new subscribers to approximately 631,000.

As of December 30, 2013, NTIA helped 192 recipients (86 percent of the total) complete project activities. NTIA will continue to work with the remaining 32 recipients (14 percent) to verify that they have met their grant requirements and formally close out these grants in the coming months. The majority of State Broadband Initiative (SBI) awards remain active until January 31, 2015.

As of December 31, 2013, grant recipients drew down $3.51 billion, or 85 percent, of federal grant funds. Recipients will use up to the remaining $613.3 million, or 15 percent, of federal grant funds to complete their projects.

The first Accountability and Transparency Team recommended holding these meetings as a way to increase the level of support and commitment of governments to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) multistakeholder process.

In London, the ICANN board will be making its formal response to that latest set of recommendations.

In April 2014, we communicated at the NETmundial meeting in Brazil a number of conditions that we insist must apply to the transition.

First, the proposal must support and enhance the multistakeholder model in that it should be developed by the multistakeholder community and have broad community support. More specifically, we will not accept a transition proposal that replaces the NTIA role with a government-led or intergovernmental organization solution.

Second, the proposal must maintain the security, stability, and resiliency of the domain name system. And in that regard, all we have put on the table is a transitioning of our role. Due to the need to maintain security and stability, we have not asked for an evaluation of the role of ICANN and Verisign in this process.

Third, it must meet the needs and expectations of the global customers and partners of the IANA services. And finally, it must maintain the openness of the Internet.

In June 2011, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) endorsed a set of principles that encouraged its members to implement policies that call for a common approach to Internet policymaking that center on ensuring the openness of the Internet.

The Internet Policymaking Principles (IPPs) include many of the same principles the United States has long advocated in its approach to Internet policymaking, standards and governance including calls to ensure the openness of the Internet, protect and promote the free flow of information on the Internet, and use of the multistakeholder approach to tackle Internet policy challenges.

These principles, which were inspired by Internet principles adopted by Brazil, were developed in 2011 as OECD members sought ways to spur economic growth as well as respond to threats to online freedom worldwide and advance a more inclusive approach to Internet policy development.

The United States has long believed that this multistakeholder approach to Internet policymaking is the best way to preserve the openness of the Internet and free flow of information. The OECD principles recognize this and endorse this approach.

The United States is taking steps to further strengthen the global multistakeholder model for Internet governance.

We hope to do just that in London at a meeting hosted by Britain’s Communications Minister Edward Vaizey where we will confer with high-level government representatives from around the world to discuss Internet governance issues more broadly. This high-level gathering will take place as part of the 50th meeting in London of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which has been tasked with convening stakeholders to help develop a successful transition plan of the US stewardship of the DNS.

NTIA released the Fourth Interim Progress Report on the Obama Administration’s initiative to identify and make available 500 megahertz of federal and non-federal spectrum for commercial wireless broadband use by 2020.

This report also includes a plan for federal agencies to conduct quantitative assessments of their actual spectrum usage in 960 megahertz of additional spectrum, as directed in President Barack Obama’s June 2013 Memorandum. America’s future competitiveness and global technology leadership depend on access to radio spectrum -- the lifeblood of smartphones, tablets, and other data-hungry wireless devices.

The key accomplishments in the 2013 fiscal year include the following:

• NTIA’s Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee concluded its groundbreaking work to explore relocation alternatives and spectrum sharing arrangements between federal agencies and commercial mobile broadband systems in the 1695-1710 MHz and 1755-1850 MHz bands.
• NTIA released regulations and guidance implementing changes to the Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act (CSEA) that provide eligible federal agencies incentives and financial assistance to facilitate the transition of the reallocated federal bands that the FCC will auction.
• NTIA published an initial assessment on spectrum-sharing technologies and the risk to federal users if Unlicensed-National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) devices were authorized to operate in the 5350-5470 MHz and 5850-5925 MHz bands (5 GHz).
• NTIA, in collaboration with other federal agencies, developed the plan for federal agencies to provide quantitative assessments of their usage of spectrum in selected frequency bands.
• The FCC initiated or concluded rulemaking proceedings for several spectrum bands and services, including H Block and AWS-4 services.