NTIA Blog

As the headquarters for a number of technology industry pioneers, Seattle has a thriving digital economy. But even in this high-tech hub, 93,000 residents – or 15 percent of the city’s population – don’t subscribe to the Internet.

And across the state of Washington and the wider Pacific Northwest, there are still rural communities that lack access to adequate broadband. The problem is particularly acute for many Native American communities, including the Makah, Quinault and other tribes of the Olympic Peninsula and the Spokane and Colville Federated Tribes east of the Cascade Mountains.

From urban centers such as Seattle and Portland, Ore., to rural towns such as Toledo, Wash., civic leaders, industry officials and community activists are making progress in narrowing the digital divide. But the job is not done. That’s the picture that emerged from a daylong regional broadband workshop that NTIA hosted in partnership with the non-profit Next Century Cities in Seattle this week.

The event was the sixth in an ongoing series of regional workshops that NTIA is organizing as part of our BroadbandUSA program, which provides free hands-on technical assistance, toolkits, guides, webinars and other support to help communities expand local broadband deployment and adoption.

As the Obama Administration continues to focus on expanding broadband access and adoption, NTIA released new data today that shows that some of the demographic groups that have historically lagged behind in using the Internet—such as senior citizens, minorities, and Americans with lower levels of educational attainment—are making big strides.

Particularly promising, Internet use increased significantly among children and older Americans between 2013 and 2015. Children between the ages of 3 and 14 became substantially more likely to go online, as Internet use among this group increased from 56 percent in 2013 to 66 percent in 2015, and Internet use among those aged 65 or older increased from 51 percent to 56 percent during the same period. In contrast, usage remained largely unchanged among those who were previously most likely to go online, with 83 percent of Americans between the ages of 25 and 44 reporting Internet use in both 2013 and 2015.

The latest data comes from the Computer and Internet Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS), which included nearly 53,000 households and was conducted for NTIA by the U.S. Census Bureau in July 2015. The large sample size provides a detailed picture of where, why and how Americans go online.

Over the past two decades, the Internet has touched the lives of billions of people around the globe in profound ways.  It has fueled economic growth, giving even the most remote villages the opportunity to sell their products in faraway lands.  It has fueled innovation, connecting mobile gadgets and household appliances.  And it has torn down barriers to speech, enabling diverse viewpoints to be heard across the political spectrum.

The Obama Administration is committed to doing everything within our power to preserve and protect the open, free-flowing global Internet, which has revolutionized the world.  That’s why two years ago, we announced our intention to transition the U.S. government’s stewardship role of the Internet Domain Name System to the global multistakeholder community.

Since our announcement, the Internet community – made up of businesses, technical experts, academics and civil society – has risen to the challenge by developing a transition plan that has achieved broad community support.  The community delivered that proposal to NTIA yesterday, marking the culmination of the largest multistakeholder process ever undertaken.  Stakeholders spent more than 26,000 working hours on the proposal, exchanged more than 33,000 messages on mailing lists, and held more than 600 meetings and calls.  

This post is part of our “Spotlight on NTIA” blog series, which is highlighting the work that NTIA employees are doing to advance NTIA’s mission of promoting broadband adoption, finding spectrum to meet the growing demand for wireless technologies, and ensuring the Internet remains an engine for innovation and economic growth.

Rafi Goldberg has been fascinated by technology since he was a child, when his father taught him how to program in BASIC on his family’s Apple II Plus.

Goldberg, who grew up on Long Island, kept up that interest as computers have advanced over the years. As an undergraduate at Tufts University near Boston, however, he pursued a different passion: public policy. Goldberg majored in political science and said he developed a strong connection with the Boston area, citing its strong sense of community and social activism. After working as an Issues Assistant on Deval Patrick’s 2005-2006 gubernatorial campaign and for the Governor's Office following Patrick’s victory, Goldberg moved to Washington in 2009 to pursue a Master’s degree in public policy from Georgetown University.

While at Georgetown, he realized that an ideal career would marry his interests in public policy and technology. He knew this combination must exist, but didn’t know where.

“And so I Googled it -- and found NTIA,” he says.

Access to broadband means economic growth, new employment opportunities, and improvements in education, health care, and public safety. NTIA's recognition of this central fact of the 21st century is why we have engaged in a range of efforts to increase Internet access, adoption, and digital literacy, from the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program funded by the Recovery Act to the creation of the first public, searchable nationwide map of broadband availability.

As a continuation of those efforts, NTIA's BroadbandUSA program is partnering with national organizations representing millions of Americans in more than a thousand localities across the country to develop the Community Connectivity Initiative (Initiative). The Initiative will empower communities across the country by giving them tools to support and accelerate local broadband planning efforts. NTIA, in close collaboration with its partners, will create a comprehensive online assessment tool to help community leaders identify critical broadband needs and connect them with expertise and resources. The tool will provide a framework of benchmarks and indicators on access, adoption, policy, and use for communities.

The U.S. copyright system strives to create a careful balance between rights and exceptions. Businesses, libraries, consumers, and especially the creative community rely on a range of exceptions and limitations, such as fair use, on a daily basis. Fair use, a fundamental element of the U.S. copyright system, is a legal doctrine that permits the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works under certain circumstances. Because it is technology-neutral, it can be applied in a flexible manner during times of dynamic technological change.

"Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week" presents an opportunity to explore various aspects of this vital part of U.S. copyright law. We would like to add to the conversation by highlighting some recommendations that the Commerce Department's Internet Policy Task Force (IPTF) recently made in the area of remix and fair use.

At Commerce, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and NTIA teamed up to release in January a major new report on copyright policy. The White Paper on Remixes, First Sale, and Statutory Damages (White Paper) considers, inter alia, the roles of fair use and licensing arrangements as they apply to remixes.

This blog was cross posted on Commerce.gov.

The Internet of Things (IoT) – which involves connecting physical objects to the Internet – has the potential to transform our lives and society. Cities around the world are harnessing the power of these new digital tools to build “Smart Cities.” Local governments are deploying low-cost sensors to improve access to public services and collect data to better understand the needs of the populations they serve. At the same time, manufacturers are using sensors to optimize equipment maintenance and protect the safety of workers, and consumers are upgrading their homes with smart appliances, such as connected thermostats and refrigerators that tweet.

The benefits of increased connectivity will be many: reduced congestion and fewer traffic accidents, remote patient monitoring and improved healthcare, and applications for emergency services, connected cars, and smart energy grids – to name just a few. Yet, we are hearing from innovators and the business community that a growing global patchwork of regulation threatens to increase costs and delay the launch of new products and services. That, in turn, could dampen investment.

This blog was cross posted on Commerce.gov.

While the Internet has transformed everything from how we search for a job to how we communicate with friends and family, cities are looking to utilize digital technology to address stubborn challenges such as reducing traffic congestion, fighting crime, promoting economic development, and making local governments more accessible and efficient. To support such efforts, the Obama Administration this fall launched a new “Smart Cities” initiative and called for investing $160 million in federal research to help communities address 21^st century challenges and support such initiatives as smart transportation systems that could adjust traffic management in real time or support expanded use of smart grid technology to better monitor peak energy usage.

Last week, I spoke at the 5^th Annual Americas Spectrum Management Conference in Washington, D.C.  It was a valuable opportunity to talk about NTIA’s approach to spectrum policy and our efforts to meet the growing need for spectrum of both industry and federal agencies.

The wireless industry has fueled tremendous innovation and economic growth with its use of spectrum. To maintain the growth of wireless broadband services, industry requires more and more spectrum. At the same time, critical missions performed by federal agencies – from predicting deadly storms to exploring space -- are requiring systems of greater complexity. The result: There is more demand for this finite resource than ever before.

It is clear that we can’t meet the challenges that arise from this increased demand by using the traditional methods of spectrum reallocation, which often take too long and cost too much money. Innovation in spectrum use must be met with innovation in spectrum allocation. The answer is spectrum sharing, a flexible and evolving option that is helping to optimize this resource to the benefit of both the public and private sectors.

Sharing offers increased access to both federal and non-federal users. It’s also more flexible and efficient than the typical process of relocating federal operations. And it’s an improving science – researchers at the Center for Advanced Communications (CAC) in Boulder, Colo., are focused on cutting-edge spectrum sharing research and development, experimentation and testing.

In July 2015, NTIA commissioned the Census Bureau to conduct the latest Computer and Internet Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS). NTIA uses this survey to help understand why, where, and how Americans use the Internet, as well as what barriers stand in the way of effective Internet use.

We are awaiting the results of the latest survey, which has been significantly redesigned to fit the changing technological landscape.  NTIA has developed a more person-centric survey instrument, as opposed to household-centric questioning, that gathers data on the range of devices people use, the places they are used, and how they are used.

We increased the flexibility of the survey instrument by making it easier to add device, location, and online activity categories while preserving our ability to track changes over time. We’re taking advantage of the new structure by asking Americans about wearable devices for the first time, as well as whether they use the Internet to interact with household equipment, like a connected thermostat or security system.

We also reserved space in the survey to ask questions about policy issues. In 2015, we gathered data on privacy and security by asking how frequently households have been affected by data breaches, whether privacy or security concerns have hampered online activities, and what people are most worried about when it comes to online privacy and security risks.