NTIA Blog

By: Cody Dorsey, Digital Equity Federal Program Officer

In 2022, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) joined the nationwide celebration of Digital Inclusion Week, recognizing its critical role in fostering equitable Internet access and digital literacy. While Digital Inclusion Week remains a week-long event, NTIA expanded its observance into a month-long celebration in 2023, reflecting the pressing need to address digital disparities in depth. This extension underscores NTIA's commitment to ensuring that everyone, regardless of location, background, or circumstance, can fully participate in the digital world.  

As we celebrate Digital Inclusion Week from October 7th to 13th, NTIA proudly shares the belief that advancing digital inclusion requires a whole-of-nation approach, emphasizing the strength we draw from working together. This year's theme, "Stronger Together: Mobilizing Toward Sustainability," highlights the importance of partnerships in creating lasting, meaningful impacts. When we unite - federal agencies, local organizations, private sector partners, and communities - we are stronger together, ensuring that digital inclusion initiatives reach the people and places that need them most.

Celebrating Nationwide Progress

By: Maci Morin, Engagement and Communications Manager, Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth 

Just over two years ago, NTIA launched the Broadband Infrastructure Program, or BIP, to bridge the connectivity gap in unserved communities, including rural communities, in America. As the first grant program to launch under the Biden-Harris Administration’s Internet For All (IFA) Initiative, BIP has been leading the way with NTIA’s historic investment in broadband infrastructure, serving as a roadmap for other connectivity projects to follow.

Progress to Date

By: Shirley “Mel” Reyes Moret, Federal Program Officer, Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program 

NTIA celebrates National Hispanic Heritage Month by showcasing one of our Internet for All grantees that embodies this year’s theme: "Pioneers of Change: Shaping the Future Together." At Universidad Ana G. Méndez, Carolina Campus (UAGM-CC) principal investigator and agent of change Dr. Luis Rosario-Albert leads the effort to connect Carolina County, Puerto Rico residents to Internet services and digital skills training through the UAGCM-CC Broadband Digital Inclusion Project (BDIP).

Carolina County, the third-largest county in Puerto Rico, has faced significant economic and technological challenges in recent years. The county had a 2023 unemployment rate of 52.1% and a median household income of $35,391 – well below the national median of $80,610. Additionally, only 59.3% of county residents owned a desktop computer or laptop. These harsh realities drove Dr. Rosario-Albert to assess the educational and technological resources in the county’s three community centers, where he discovered that none had an active Internet service subscription.  

NTIA awarded Phoenix College more than $4.25 million from the Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program to improve high-speed Internet service capacity and workforce development training. This funding also enabled Phoenix College to purchase devices and software, create paid internships within the college’s Information Technology Department, and revise programs within their new Bachelor of IT program, among other changes and improvements.  

Randisha Gaines

Gaines is pursuing a B.A. in Information Technology with a focus in Administration Networking and Cybersecurity, while also working as a part-time 3D Lab Technician in the college’s 3D printing lab. Following an eight-year stint in the Navy, and then the medical field during the Covid-19 pandemic, she was interested in shifting to an IT career. However, she found it difficult to break into the field.  

“It’s such an underserved field that needs those resources, as far as technology, training, and other opportunities go,” Gaines explained.  

By Rafi Goldberg, Senior Policy Advisor, Digital Equity

Today, we’re excited to announce Local Estimates of Internet Adoption (Project LEIA), a new project to improve our understanding of the digital divide at a local level.

Improved and more timely estimates of Internet adoption in counties and other communities will lead to better tracking of our progress toward digital equity and fuel important research and policy development efforts.

NTIA and the U.S. Census Bureau have been working together for 30 years to inform policymakers, researchers, advocates, and the general public about the state of computer and Internet use in America. This vital partnership began with the 1994 introduction of the NTIA Internet Use Survey, and has grown over time through a range of joint efforts.

By: Karen Hanson, Director of Interagency Coordination, Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth (OICG), National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)

As projects from the Biden-Harris administration’s Internet for All initiative connect people to affordable, reliable high-speed Internet service around the country, coordinating across the federal government is crucial to maximize taxpayer dollars and ensure no one is left behind.

That interagency coordination is now stronger than ever, and yet can be further strengthened through additional action.  

To that point, NTIA today released a report based on the Government Accountability Office’s recommendation to assess legislative barriers in coordinating Federal broadband programs, and how to address those barriers.

The report highlights steps taken by agencies to promote alignment and provides suggestions for further improvements.

Alignment across federal agencies can prove challenging because programs are often authorized at different points in time and frequently impose different deployment obligations, timelines, and technical specifications. Despite this NTIA works collaboratively with our colleagues to promote best practices and make improvements where possible.

The report outlines recommendations to build on current efforts, mechanisms currently in place to minimize potential duplication between federal programs, and NTIA’s role in coordination.

By: Robert Cannon, Senior Telecommunications Policy Analyst

On September 3, 2024, the White House Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) released the Roadmap to Enhancing Internet Routing Security report. The report recommends actions the federal government and all Internet networks should take to advance routing security.

Internet networks use the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) to exchange information about destinations and routes to destinations – in effect creating maps of how to navigate the Internet. That creates two problems. First, the destination information may be wrong, and second, the route to the destination may be wrong.

When routing information is wrong, bad things happen – misdirection of traffic, loss of service, and theft of data. But the federal government is making progress on routing security.

Report Recommendations

The Roadmap Report recommends actions to address these routing vulnerabilities. It calls for all network operators to implement routing security, which requires them to create Route Origin Authorizations (ROAs), or cryptographic verifications that the destination is correct.

By: Samantha Claggett, Digital Equity Advisor, NTIA

On July 24th NTIA launched our Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program Notice of Funding Opportunity. A wide variety of applicants will apply for part of nearly $1 billion to fund digital equity efforts in their communities. The application window will be open for 60 days and close on September 23, 2024 at 11:59 PM ET. Complete, territory-wide applications from the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands must be received no later than 11:50 PM ET on October 22, 2024. As applicants work on their applications, it is critical to keep in mind the importance of sustainable project planning and meaningful change.

Measurable Impact and Meaningful Change

Meaningful change can create a lasting, measurable impact that resonates for years to come.  

By Kenneth R. Tilley, NTIA ITS Technical Writer, Editor, Videographer

Have you ever attended a virtual discussion ruined by poor audio quality?

You know the scenario: Unintelligible speech interrupts a class, virtual conference, online meeting, or telemedicine appointment. The result? Less material learned, less engagement, more confusion, and more time wasted.

Nobody can afford that. About a third of U.S. workers who can work remotely now do so all the time according to a 2023 Pew Research Center study. And June 2024 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that more than 34 million Americans telework at least part of the time.

Given these numbers, it’s clear that good online audio is essential to accelerating America’s digital economy.

Recognizing this reality, researchers at the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS), NTIA’s research and engineering laboratory, published a report in July 2024 examining how common audio impairments can be avoided, reduced, or eliminated with minimal effort and expense.