NTIA To Release AI Accountability Report ‘This Winter’
he National Telecommunications and Information Administration is planning to release its artificial intelligence accountability report “this winter,” the agency’s top official said on Monday. The NTIA first requested comment in April 2023 on what policies should be put in place to ensure the trustworthiness of AI systems. More than 1,400 commenters weighed in, which is a lot for the agency, NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson said at a Knight Foundation event.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced on Wednesday a $50-million grant to Dish Wireless from the agency’s Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund. The money will go to the establishment of the company’s Open RAN Center for Integration and Deployment, or ORCID. The Cheyenne, Wyo.-based testing facility will allow companies to test equipment and software to ensure their technology works with existing 5G networks. The funding for ORCID is an attempt to allow smaller vendors to enter the market.
The telecommunications division of the U.S. Department of Commerce is backing the idea of raising the speed definition of broadband but was silent about taking it to a much higher level sought by a few fiber broadband companies. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration alerted the FCC last week that it supported raising the definition of broadband to 100/20 Mbps. The current threshold is 25/3 Mbps, which many view as outdated. NTIA’s letter didn’t address raising the broadband speed level to 100/100 Mbps – creating a symmetrical standard supported by regional fiber companies like Allo Fiber, Google Fiber and Ting Internet.
NTIA adjusts its guidance on the multibillion-dollar Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment subsidy program.
The Biden administration has told the FCC it should adopt a broad definition of digital discrimination, including in pricing, as it comes up with rules for handing out tens of billions of dollars in broadband buildout subsidies intended to achieve unversal deployment by decade’s end.
The Biden administration is looking to potentially regulate artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic processes. On Tuesday (April 11), the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, the White House’s chief communications policy advisory arm, put out a request for comment on just how that might come about.
Exclusives
Only hours before the Senate Commerce Committee’s scheduled hearing on past spectrum disputes between the FCC and the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, the FCC and NTIA announced a new memorandum of understanding on coordinating their spectrum oversight, including regular formal interagency spectrum planning meetings.
Alan Davidson, newly installed head of the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, has named two new top officials to the agency: April McClain Delaney, formerly Washington director of Common Sense Media, is deputy assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information, and former Chattanooga, Tenn., Mayor Andy Berke has been named special representative for broadband.
The ranking member on the powerful Senate Commerce Committee wants the relationship between new FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel and new NTIA head Alan Davidson to start out on the right foot. In a letter to both, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), called on the FCC and the National Telecommunications & Information Administration to work together to better coordinate spectrum policy.
The Senate voted Tuesday (Jan. 11) to approve the nomination of open internet advocate Alan Davidson, a longtime executive with Mozilla and Google, to head the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, but there was plenty of Republican pushback. As head of NTIA, Davidson will be responsible for overseeing $48 billion in broadband subsidy money authorized in the recently passed infrastructure act. The vote was 60 to 31, with the majority of Republicans voting against
The National Telecommunications & Information Administration, the lead agency overseeing the Biden Administration’s tens of billions of dollars in new broadband subsidy aid authorized by the infrastructure bill, is seeking public input on just how to hand it out, primarily to states for their own broadband buildout efforts. NTIA, the White House’s chief communications policy adviser, has issued a request for comment, is distributing about $48 billion of the new law’s roughly $65 billion.
The Senate Commerce Committee has voted to approve the nomination of open internet advocate Alan Davidson, a longtime executive with Mozilla and Google before that, to head the National Telecommunications & Information Administration. Three Republicans voted against the nomination: John Thune (S.D.), Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.) and Tim Scott (S.C.).
Nearly eight months into his presidency, jOE Biden has yet to pick permanent leaders for the Federal Communications Commission and the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which together oversee and set policy for the broadcast and Internet service industries. For the FCC, that’s slower than any president since Jimmy Carter in 1977 — just by a few days — and for NTIA, it’s the longest ever since the agency’s founding in 1978.
Biden Vacancies Delay Big Tech Reckoning
President Biden still hasn’t named permanent leaders at the key agencies overseeing the tech and telecom industries, giving him a late start on confronting powerful U.S. companies. If Biden doesn’t move quickly, there won’t be enough time left for his administration to take on big targets and tackle thorny policy problems.
The FCC has signed an agreement with the National Science Foundation and the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, the White House’s top communications adviser, to advance spectrum R&D. The move is a nod both to interagency multilateralism and the value of science, two things the previous administration was criticized for downplaying.
As directed by President Trump, the Commerce Department has petitioned the FCC for regulations that could affect how social media companies treat posts by users. The petition, filed Monday by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, asks the FCC to issue rules tying web companies’ legal protections for users’ speech to the companies’ content moderation policies.
Trump Wants FCC To Join Twitter Crackdown
The president today signed an executive order targeting Twitter and other social media. It comprises several directives, including one calling on the FCC to establish rules that would limit how far social media can go in tagging and censoring user content before risking the immunity they now have from libel and other civil actions arising from user content. Above, the president holds up a copy of the New York Post before signing the order.
Former FCC, NTIA Official Henry Geller Dies
The longtime force in telecommunications regulation and policy was involved in the banning of cigarette advertising on broadcasting, the regulation of cable and rules prohibiting broadcasters from discriminating in employment on the basis of race. He was 96.
Diane Rinaldo, who is acting administrator for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, emailed staff a “fond farewell” on Monday. Doug Kinkoph, Commerce Department acting deputy assistant secretary, will fill in for Rinaldo as acting administrator.
Charles Cooper has been named associate administrator of the Office of Spectrum Management at the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, where he will help develop the National Spectrum Strategy mandated by President Trump. Cooper, who comes aboard July 1, was most recently at the FCC, where he was involved in radio frequency enforcement.
National Telecommunications and Information Administration chief David Redl resigned abruptly from his position on Thursday, officials confirmed. Redl has been at the helm of the NTIA, the body tasked with advising the Trump administration’s telecom policy within the Department of Commerce, since November 2017.
President Trump’s nominee to head the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, David Redl, was approved by the Senate with a voice vote. He most recently was the chief counsel at the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that seeks to repeal all of its regulations establishing and governing the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP). The PTFP was a competitive grant program that helped public broadcasting entities, state and local governments, Native American Tribes, and nonprofit organizations to construct public television and radio stations.
The White House announced Tuesday that President Trump will nominate David Redl to be the next administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Redl currently is chief counsel at the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and is the principal legal adviser to Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and Republicans on the committee regarding communications and technology matters.
Buried within the mammoth budget deal that the White House and the Republican-led House have agreed to are provisions that would require the FCC and Department of Commerce to identify 30 MHz of government-held spectrum to be auctioned for commercial wireless use.
A draft of the “Spectrum Pipeline Act of 2015″ is currently circulating the House Communications Subcommittee in hopes of creating a framework for the FCC’s reclaimed wireless broadband spectrum auction. The proposed bill would ask the FCC to work with the NTIA on outlining rules and procedures for relocating federal spectrum for users, as well as band sharing for non-federal users. It would also ask the agencies to develop a timeline for bidding, but does not identify specific spectrum.
NTIA steps up effort to develop consensus as to best practices for drone use. The agency has scheduled a series of four meetings “of a multistakeholder process concerning privacy, transparency and accountability issues regarding commercial and private use” of drones.
Drones Are Now On The NTIA’s Radar
In addition to the FAA, a second federal agency is joining the move to regulate drones. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which of late has been focusing mainly on policies related to broadband, spectrum use and the Internet, has begun a multistakeholder process to address “best practices” for the commercial and private use of drones. The goal is to look at broader drone-related issues, such as privacy concerns, transparency and accountability.
Today, the FCC’s Office of Engineering & Technology and the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration released a Joint Public Notice that seeks input on the establishment of a “Model City” program to test advanced wireless spectrum sharing technologies.
NTIA to LPTVs: ‘Last Call for Digital Grants’
On July 2, NTIA is set to close the door on applications for grants to reimburse the costs of digital conversion for low-power TV, Class A TV, TV translator and TV booster stations.
A new timetable says the FCC will need to identify the spectrum it’s reclaiming for wireless broadband by mid-2011 and start moving broadcasters to new locations by 2Q 2013.
