America’s technology leadership in secure and reliable 5G communications is critical to the nation’s economic and international competitiveness. Delivering on these goals, President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2021 budget calls for increased funding to modernize the nation’s spectrum management system; improve the security of our telecommunications infrastructure; and upgrade advanced communications research.
The budget would spend an additional $25 million to modernize the spectrum management system to accommodate advanced technologies. With these resources, NTIA will create a secure, flexible, and automated spectrum management system that would improve with the integrity and confidentiality of data; reduce “white space” between spectrum assignments; reengineer business processes; and automate workflows.
The budget also would add $3 million to for the Advanced Communications Research program at the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences, NTIA’s research lab in Boulder, Colorado. The funds would be used to replace equipment the lab uses for research and testing of 5G technologies to help the United States transition from 4G LTE. To improve NTIA’s ability to manage supply chain risks to our nation’s telecommunications infrastructure, the budget calls for an additional $2.1 million and six new positions.
Overall, the President’s FY2021 budget request for NTIA is $72.2 million.