[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 104 (Wednesday, May 30, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 24747-24749]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-11483]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Telecommunications and Information Administration

[Docket No. 180427421-8421-01]
RIN 0660-XC042


Improving the Quality and Accuracy of Broadband Availability Data

AGENCY: National Telecommunications and Information Administration, 
U.S. Department of Commerce

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ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The National Telecommunications and Information Administration 
(NTIA), on behalf of the Department of Commerce (Department), is 
requesting comment on actions that can be taken to improve the quality 
and accuracy of broadband availability data, particularly in rural 
areas, as part of the activities directed by Congress in the 
Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018. Through this Request for 
Comments (RFC), NTIA seeks input from a broad range of interested 
stakeholders--including private industry; academia; federal, state, and 
local government; not-for-profits; and other stakeholders with an 
interest in broadband availability--on ways to improve the nation's 
ability to analyze broadband availability, with the intention of 
identifying gaps in broadband availability that can be used to improve 
policymaking and inform public investments.

DATES: Comments are due on or before 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on 
July 16, 2018.

ADDRESSES: Written comments may be submitted by email to 
[email protected]. Written comments may also be submitted by mail 
to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, U.S. 
Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Room 4887, Attn: 
Douglas Kinkoph, Associate Administrator, Washington, DC 20230. For 
more instructions about submitting comments, see the ``Instructions for 
Commenters'' section of SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Andy Spurgeon, tel.: (720) 389-4900, 
email: [email protected], or Tim Moyer, tel.: (202) 482-6423, 
email: [email protected], National Telecommunications and Information 
Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue 
NW, Room 4725, Washington, DC 20230. Please direct media inquiries to 
NTIA's Office of Public Affairs, (202) 482-7002, or at 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Background: Broadband connectivity is essential to the nation's 
economic growth and social advancement. It is the conduit for economic 
and social opportunities for U.S. households and a gateway to increased 
productivity, growth and market access for businesses of all sizes, yet 
many American businesses, households and critical anchor institutions 
lack sufficient broadband availability. Using its current definition of 
broadband (25 Mbps downstream/3 Mbps upstream), Federal Communications 
Commission (FCC) data show that approximately 8 percent of Americans 
lived in places where fixed terrestrial broadband service was 
unavailable by the end of 2016. This data also demonstrates that there 
continued to be a significant disparity across America, with more than 
30 percent of rural Americans and approximately 35 percent of those 
living on Tribal lands lacking broadband availability, compared to 2 
percent of Americans living in urban areas.\1\ Many businesses, schools 
and libraries in rural and Tribal areas are insufficiently served or 
cannot afford the network transmission speed required to support 
multiple users of bandwidth-intensive applications. Knowing where the 
persistent gaps in broadband exist is crucial to enabling more 
efficient and effective investments in broadband infrastructure from 
both the public and private sectors.
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    \1\ Federal Communications Commission 2018 Broadband Progress 
Report. See https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-18-10A1.pdf.
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    NTIA, in collaboration with the FCC, pioneered the collection of 
extensive broadband deployment data when it launched the State 
Broadband Initiative (SBI) in 2009. Through this program, NTIA worked 
with every state, territory, and the District of Columbia to collect 
fixed and mobile broadband availability data for over 11 million Census 
blocks every six months for five years. To make these data accessible 
to a broad audience, NTIA launched the National Broadband Map (NBM) in 
2011. Although the SBI program ended in 2015, NTIA continues its 
extensive work to collect, analyze, and disseminate data relevant to 
broadband availability and adoption.
    Presently, the only source of nationwide broadband availability 
data is that collected from broadband service provider responses to the 
FCC Form 477 Fixed Broadband Deployment data process. Form 477 data are 
submitted by voice and broadband telecommunications service providers 
semi-annually and include information on services each provider offers, 
at the Census block level.\2\ While the Census block system provides a 
very high level of geographic granularity overall--the United States is 
divided into over 11 million blocks, 95 percent of which do not exceed 
1 square mile in land area--it is possible that broadband availability 
may vary within a single block, particularly if it is geographically 
larger (which is most common in rural areas). A provider offering 
service to any homes or businesses in a Census block is instructed to 
report that block as served in its Form 477 filing, even though it may 
not offer broadband services in most of the block. This can lead to 
overstatements in the level of broadband availability, especially in 
rural areas where Census blocks are large.
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    \2\ ``All facilities-based broadband providers are required to 
file data with the FCC twice a year (Form 477) on where they offer 
internet access service at speeds exceeding 200 kbps in at least one 
direction.'' See https://www.fcc.gov/general/broadband-deployment-data-fcc-form-477.
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    Moreover, there is no independent validation or verification 
process for Form 477 data service providers to submit to the FCC. While 
NTIA believes that the Form 477 data program is impressively large and 
useful, and benefits broadband policy research and decision-making, as 
well as the FCC's internal needs, NTIA also believes that the Form 477 
data collection program suffers from issues with data accuracy.
    Recognizing the deficiencies of the current broadband data 
collection process, Congress directed NTIA to update the national 
broadband availability map in coordination with the FCC and use 
partnerships previously developed with the states. Unlike the SBI 
program, in which NTIA worked with the states to collect and validate 
broadband availability data independent from the FCC's Form 477 data 
collection process, this is not a new program to fund the primary 
collection of broadband availability or subscription data, nor to fund 
specific data collection activities by states or third parties. Rather, 
Congress directed NTIA to acquire and display available third-party 
data sets to the extent it is able to negotiate inclusion to augment 
data from the FCC, other federal government agencies, state government, 
and the private sector. The objective of these updates is to identify 
regions of the country with insufficient broadband capacity, 
particularly in rural areas.
    NTIA is well-suited to perform this task. It has extensive 
experience collecting data on broadband adoption and usage in the 
United States, creating decades of datasets that complement the Form 
477 data collections on broadband deployment and subscription. Since 
1994, NTIA has partnered with the Census Bureau (Census) to survey 
approximately 53,000 U.S. households on their internet and computer 
use. NTIA's questionnaire, administered as a supplement to Census's 
Current Population Survey (CPS), includes more than 50 questions to 
gather a wealth of information on household and individual internet use 
and

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demographics, including the locations, technologies, and devices that 
people use to go online, their online activities, and the reasons why 
some Americans still do not utilize these technologies. Whereas Form 
477 focuses on broadband availability and subscription data gathered 
from service providers, NTIA's CPS Supplements provide detailed 
information on adoption and usage of the internet, as reported by 
households across the country. The NTIA surveys, together with the 
FCC's Form 477 and three household broadband adoption questions on the 
American Community Survey, comprise a valuable, holistic set of federal 
data sources related to broadband.
    NTIA issues this RFC to solicit informed recommendations and 
feedback on sources of broadband availability data, mechanisms to 
validate broadband availability data using multiple data sources or new 
techniques, and approaches to leverage such data and techniques to 
inform broadband planning at the state and national levels by promoting 
the most efficient use of state or federal funding to areas that are 
insufficiently served by broadband.
    Request for Comments: NTIA invites comment on the full range of 
issues that may be presented by this inquiry, including issues that are 
not specifically raised in the questions below. Commenters are 
encouraged to address any or all of the questions below. Comments that 
contain references to studies, research, and other empirical data that 
are not widely published should include copies of the referenced 
materials with the submitted comments.
    1. Identifying additional broadband availability data:
    a. What additional data on broadband availability are available 
from federal, state, not-for-profit, academic, or private-sector 
sources to augment the FCC Form 477 data set?
    b. What obstacles--such as concerns about the quality, scope, or 
format of the data, as well as contractual, confidentiality, or data 
privacy concerns--might prevent the collaborative use of such data?
    2. Technology type, service areas, and bandwidth: Please consider 
providing a table or spreadsheet attachment when responding to question 
2, if needed.
    a. For each broadband availability data source, please define the 
specific broadband technologies (e.g., wireline, cable, fixed wireless, 
satellite, multiple sources, etc.) included in the data set. Please 
explain the service areas or geographic scope of the data set (e.g., 
Census block, county, cable franchises, publicly funded service areas, 
etc.) and describe how records from the data set could be matched with 
records from Form 477 data.
    b. Describe how frequently the data set is updated and the 
methodology used for collection and what measures are employed to 
validate or otherwise ensure the data is accurate. Please explain 
whether the data set differentiates between subscribed bandwidth and 
maximum available speeds.
    c. For each data set, please provide the name(s) and type(s) of 
entity that collects the data.
    d. Finally, please specify the format of the data (e.g., CSV, 
specific database, specific Geographic Information System (GIS) format, 
etc.)
    3. New approaches: Are there new approaches, tools, technologies, 
or methodologies that could be used to capture broadband availability 
data, particularly in rural areas?
    4. Validating broadband availability data:
    a. What methodologies, policies, standards, or technologies can be 
implemented to validate and compare various broadband availability data 
sources and identify and address conflicts between them?
    b. Do examples or studies of such validation exist?
    c. What thresholds or benchmarks should be taken into account when 
validating broadband availability, such as bandwidth, latency, 
geographic coverage, technology type, etc.? How can conformance to such 
standards be used to evaluate the accuracy of broadband data sets? How 
could those standards be used to improve policymaking, program 
management, or research in broadband-related fields?
    5. Identifying gaps in broadband availability:
    a. What data improvements can the government implement to better 
identify areas with insufficient broadband capacity?
    b. What other inputs should NTIA seek to inform data-driven 
broadband policy- and decision-making?
    Instructions for Commenters: Comments submitted by email should be 
machine-readable and should not be copy-protected. Comments submitted 
by mail may be in hard copy (paper) or electronic (on CD-ROM or disk). 
Responders should include the name of the person or organization filing 
the comment, as well as a page number on each page of their 
submissions. All comments received are a part of the public record and 
will generally be posted on the NTIA website, https://www.ntia.doc.gov, 
without change. All personal identifying information (for example, 
name, address) voluntarily submitted by the commenter may be publicly 
accessible. Do not submit confidential business information or 
otherwise sensitive or protected information. NTIA will accept 
anonymous comments.

    Dated: May 23, 2018.
David J. Redl,
Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information.
[FR Doc. 2018-11483 Filed 5-29-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-60-P