NTIA Blog
One Byte at a Time: NTIA’s Approach For a Trustworthy and Secure Internet
New laptop, new chance
By Margaret Harding McGill, NTIA
Dalia Calderon was ready to quit college, for the second time. She had returned to Mercy University after a 20-year break, but the combination of online classes and an ancient laptop was proving to be too much to bear.
“I said, ‘I don’t know how I can finish school. I'm just going to drop out - I’m already old,’” said Calderon, 47, who lives in the Bronx. “That’s when I got an email that said they were loaning laptops. I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’”
Mercy University has loaned more than 500 laptops and hotspots to help students like Calderon access the Internet as part of a program funded by a $2.6 million Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
Calderon first attended Mercy when she was in her twenties, but between having children and the cost of tuition, she was unable to graduate. She now works at an elementary school, and the principal urged her to return to college so she could obtain her teaching license.
Calderon worked as a private tutor to save up the money to re-enroll. She took online classes so she could continue to work, but her ancient laptop was not up to the task. With only two classes left, she was ready to give up.
That’s when she heard about Mercy’s new laptop program. When she went to campus to pick hers up, she learned it was also Internet-enabled.
One Giant Leap for Mobility: Recapping the 2023 5G Challenge
At the National Telecommunications and Information Administration we are working to foster the development of an open 5G wireless ecosystem to help the private sector bring new life and innovation to a marketplace held back by few vendors and little competition.
One way we’re doing this is through our 5G lab at the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences, where we partnered with the Department of Defense for our 2023 5G Challenge. The 2023 5G Challenge tested whether an open 5G ecosystem can work in real world scenarios.
Challenge Structure Recap
These results are now available in the 2023 5G Challenge Closing Ceremony video
The 2023 5G Challenge tested whether components of an Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN), such as antennas and radio base stations, can work together to ultimately create a multi-vendor subsystem end-to-end (E2E) 5G network.
The Road to IGF2023
Connecting neighbors to high-speed Internet service in rural Texas
2023 5G Challenge Update: Three Contestant Pairs Pass Stage Three End to End Interoperability Testing
Making Internet for All in America: The Next Steps
Following President Biden’s State of the Union Address in January, NTIA announced that it would take a strict approach to enforcing Build America, Buy America requirements for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. Now we’re ready to provide more specifics.
The justification for a firm approach to enforcement is clear. Internet for All is a once-in-a-generation investment to expand and upgrade America’s high-speed Internet networks, with $42.45 billion in funds from the BEAD program alone. Those American tax dollars should be used to buy products made in America and to create hundreds of thousands of American jobs.
That’s why NTIA is proposing a limited and targeted waiver of Build America, Buy America provisions for the BEAD Program that follows this strict approach to enforcing rules that protect and create American jobs.
IPAs On Tap: NTIA’s Role in Cybersecurity Policy
NTIA Promotes 5G Supplier Diversity At Home and Abroad
By Kate Dimsdale, NTIA Telecommunications Policy Specialist
At NTIA, we believe that open and interoperable networks are the future of wireless technologies, including 5G and its successors. Such networks will increase the reliability of our telecom supply chain, drive competition and provide our allies with additional choices for trustworthy equipment.
Right now, the wireless network equipment market is highly consolidated, with just a few companies supplying the equipment necessary to support a network. But Open Radio Access Networks, or Open RAN, would unlock that system to allow different companies to compete to supply equipment for different parts of the network. Those different components will be compatible and interoperable with each other. Think of it as similar to the different options for tires that car makers have, or how home Internet users can buy different and competing routers for their WiFi service.
The U.S. Government believes in the promise of these networks. NTIA is administering a $1.5 billion Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund to promote the development and deployment of open and interoperable equipment in America.
But the wireless equipment ecosystem is global, and we want our allies and partner countries to benefit from this coming shift.
2023 5G Challenge Update: All Nine Contestant Subsystems Pass Stage Two Wrap-around Emulation Testing
One of the main priorities at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration is to accelerate the adoption of an open 5G ecosystem through open interfaces, interoperable subsystems, secure networks, and modular multi-vendor solutions.
A main component of this work is to research and test whether an open 5G ecosystem can work in real-world scenarios. This is where the 2023 5G Challenge comes into play. The 5G Challenge is a research competition and collaboration between the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) in Boulder, Colorado.
The 2023 5G Challenge is offering a $7 million prize pool for participants who successfully integrate their radio access network (RAN) subsystems with multiple other RAN participant subsystems and outperform their peers.
The 2023 5G Challenge consists of multiple stages during which contestants are evaluated and prizes are awarded. During all phases of the competition the host lab ensures that contestant subsystems adhere to 3GPP standards and O-RAN ALLIANCE specifications and identify issues that would hinder multi-vendor integration.
Teams have progressed in testing since starting the challenge in late March. After the first nine weeks of host lab testing, the initial nine contestants have passed Stage Two wrap-around emulation testing.
Stage Two Testing