Lawrence E. Strickling, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) www.ntia.doc.gov updated the Public Law Institute and the Federal Communications Bar Association Telecommunications Policy and Regulation Institute meeting in Washington D.C on December 4, 2014.
He discussed how NTIA’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) www2.ntia.doc.gov has invested more than $4 billion in grants to build network infrastructure, establish public computer centers, and develop digital literacy training to expand broadband adoption.
Strickling reports that the national broadband map created by NTIA in partnership with the FCC through the State Broadband Initiative www2.ntia.doc.gov/SBDD now supports more than 200 local broadband planning teams across the U.S.
To date, the grantees have built or upgraded more than 113,000 miles of fiber and connected nearly 25,000 community anchor institutions such as schools and libraries. Grantees have established or upgraded 3,000 public computer centers, trained more than 4 million people, and helped 735,000 households to sign up for broadband.
NTIA provides leads on funds and also provides basic guidance to communities to build their broadband capacity. To assist communities, NTIA has published a broadband adoption toolkit that serves as a reference manual for municipalities and other organizations that want to increase the level of adoption in their communities.
The toolkit contains advice as well as practical ideas and tips to enable people to go online from senior citizens that haven’t been online to minority populations that may not speak English, plus others that may not be familiar with computers.
The broadband adoption toolkit is being used in Kansas City which is the first Google Fiber city. In looking at the needs in Kansas City, it became apparent that low income neighborhoods were not meeting Google’s investment threshold. As a result, Google and the Greater Kansas City Foundation created a grant program using NTIA’s broadband adoption toolkit to guide digital inclusion work by local nonprofits and community organizations.
In addition, NTIA is putting together a second toolkit to assist communities that want to increase the level of broadband infrastructure in their areas. This guide will provide solid and field tested advice on how to establish effective partnerships, how to develop useful applications, and how to build projects that will be able to sustain themselves.
Strickling concluded his talk by discussing the First Responder Network Authority www.firstnet.gov or referred to as FirstNet. The network an independent authority housed within NTIA is in charge of developing, operating, and maintaining the new network.
Last March, the FirstNet Board adopted their first “FirstNet Strategic Program Roadmap” outlining the milestones that FirstNet plans to accomplish over the next year. There are plans to do formal in-person state consultations and initiate a public notice and comment process to discuss program procedures, and polices.
Presently, FirstNet is collecting information and recommendations from industry on how to best develop the network. FirstNet hopes to release a draft request for proposals to procure the network which will lead to a formal request for proposals by the end of 2015.
State consultations are now taking place to develop a detailed network plan for each state. FirstNet anticipates holding numerous in-person meetings with states and territories over the next year and beyond.