[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 177 (Thursday, September 12, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 74220-74221]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-20645]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Telecommunications and Information Administration

[Docket No. 240906-0233]
RIN 0660-XC063


Request for Comment on Local Estimates of internet Adoption

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

ACTION: Notice, request for public comments.

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SUMMARY: The National Telecommunications and Information Administration 
(NTIA) is seeking comments and recommendations regarding the project 
entitled, ``Local Estimates of internet Adoption'' (Project LEIA). 
Project LEIA is a new joint project of NTIA and the United States 
Census Bureau (Census Bureau) to develop model-based estimates of 
internet adoption for smaller populations than would typically be 
possible using survey data alone. We request input about potential uses 
of these estimates. We are also seeking suggestions for potential 
future improvements to the initial experimental model, as well as what 
additional sub-state geographies, small populations, indicators, or 
methods should be considered as future directions for Project LEIA.

DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before 
October 15, 2024.

ADDRESSES: All electronic public comments on this action, identified by 
Regulations.gov docket number NTIA-2024-0003, may be submitted through 
the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal at www.regulations.gov. Click the 
``Comment Now!'' icon, complete the required fields, and enter or 
attach your comments. Please do not include information of a 
confidential nature, such as sensitive personal information or 
proprietary information, in your comments. All comments received are a 
part of the public record and will generally be posted to 
www.regulations.gov without change. All personal identifying 
information (e.g., name, address) voluntarily submitted by the 
commenter may be publicly accessible. Information obtained as a result 
of this notice may be used by the Federal Government for program 
planning on a non-attribution basis.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Please direct questions regarding this 
Request for Comment to Rafi Goldberg, Senior Policy Advisor, Digital 
Equity, NTIA, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Suite 4725, Washington, DC 
20230, at (202) 482-4375 or [email protected]. Please direct media 
inquiries to NTIA's Office of Public Affairs, at (202) 482-7002 or 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: For thirty years, NTIA and the Census Bureau 
have partnered to produce valuable data on computer and internet use in 
the United States. These data enable policymakers, researchers, and 
advocates to better understand challenges to achieving digital equity 
and other internet policy issues. The most enduring example of this is 
the NTIA internet Use Survey, which is administered as a supplement to 
the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey. The most recent edition 
of this survey was fielded in November 2023.\1\ Since 1994, the survey 
has served as the premier Federal data source for in-depth information 
on who uses the internet, what technologies they use, and what 
challenges still prevent far too many Americans from fully realizing 
the benefits of modern information technologies. The relationship 
between NTIA and the Census Bureau has also expanded over time, 
facilitating the creation of additional data products that further 
improve the state of knowledge on internet use. In 2008, the Broadband 
Data Improvement Act directed the Census Bureau to add questions to the 
American Community Survey (ACS) about household computer use and 
internet subscribership.\2\ NTIA and the Federal Communications 
Commission (FCC) staff worked with our Census Bureau counterparts on 
implementation of these questions. More recently, NTIA collaborated 
with Census Bureau teams to create estimates of the Covered 
Populations, as defined by the Digital Equity Act.\3\ We also 
collaborated to launch the ACCESS BROADBAND Dashboard, which visualizes 
internet adoption across the United States.\4\
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    \1\ See, e.g., NTIA, ``New NTIA Data Show 13 Million More 
internet Users in the U.S. in 2023 than 2021,'' June 6, 2024, 
available at https://www.ntia.gov/blog/2024/new-ntia-data-show-13-million-more-internet-users-us-2023-2021.
    \2\ 47 U.S.C. 1303(d).
    \3\ U.S. Census Bureau, Digital Equity Act of 2021, available at 
https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/community-resilience-estimates/partnerships/ntia/digital-equity.html.
    \4\ U.S. Census Bureau, ACCESS BROADBAND Act of 2021, available 
at https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/community-resilience-estimates/partnerships/ntia/broadband-act.html.
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    While these data products have enabled a great deal of important 
research and policy analysis, some significant gaps remain in our

[[Page 74221]]

understanding of internet use. Notably, we have limited ability to 
reliably estimate variables like internet adoption for individual 
counties or other smaller geographies and populations. Data from the 
NTIA internet Use Survey can be used to estimate internet use at the 
national and state levels and for a range of demographic groups. 
However, it cannot provide estimates for counties, census tracts, or 
other small areas. The ACS comes closer to fulfilling this task--at 
least for the indicators enabled by the three computer and internet use 
questions it contains--but can only shed light on less populous areas 
by aggregating five consecutive years' worth of survey responses.\5\ 
While invaluable for many purposes, a five-year time scale is not ideal 
for tasks like conducting yearly program evaluation or studying the 
impacts of relatively sudden changes.
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    \5\ See ACS ``Areas Published,'' available at https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/geography-acs/areas-published.html.
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    Last year, NTIA and the Census Bureau began an experimental project 
to study the feasibility of--and ultimately to produce--estimates of 
internet adoption for small, sub-state areas during a single year to 
address this knowledge gap and better serve the policymaking process. 
Using techniques that have been successfully employed in other data 
products,\6\ Census Bureau experts are combining existing data from key 
household surveys with auxiliary data that are known to correlate with 
internet adoption rates. By using a predictive model, the Census Bureau 
team can produce estimates for less populous geographies or groups that 
have both smaller margins of error than equivalent estimates based on 
survey data alone and reduced risk that such estimates can be used to 
identify individual respondents. Those two features of small area 
modeling make it possible to publish more granular estimates than would 
otherwise be permissible or recommended for estimates generated 
entirely from survey data.
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    \6\ See, e.g., U.S. Census Bureau, Small Area Income and Poverty 
Estimates (SAIPE) Program, available at https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/saipe.html.
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    For this first phase of Project LEIA, the Census Bureau team 
produced an experimental model to estimate the proportion of households 
in each U.S. county that subscribed to wired internet service in 
2022.\7\ To accomplish this, Census used the direct survey estimates 
for wired internet adoption from the 2022 ACS in combination with 
several variables related to subscribership levels, including each 
county's median household income, educational attainment level, and 
availability of fixed broadband services offering at least 100 Mbps 
download and 20 Mbps upload speeds. A complete feasibility report 
detailing the methodology used in this model, as well as the 
experimental estimates themselves and related materials, is available 
at https://www.census.gov/data/experimental-data-products/local-estimates-of-internet-adoption.html.
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    \7\ Specifically, the metric being modeled is households 
reporting a subscription to ``broadband (high speed) internet 
service such as cable, fiber optic, or DSL service installed in this 
household.'' While dial-up internet service--which by definition is 
also a ``wired'' internet service--is not included here (and falls 
under a different answer choice in the relevant ACS question), it 
was an extremely uncommon type of internet service by 2022. 
According to the 2022 ACS, approximately 0.1 percent of households 
used only a dial-up internet service. See 2022 American Community 
Survey questionnaire at 9, available at https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/methodology/questionnaires/2022/quest22.pdf; 
Census Bureau Table S2801, available at https://data.census.gov/table/ACSST1Y2022.S2801.
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    As we prepare to continue this important collaboration with the 
Census Bureau, NTIA invites all suggestions for improvements to the 
initial experimental model. We also welcome suggestions about how to 
prioritize future expansion of Project LEIA's scope. The following 
questions serve as a non-exhaustive guide to some of the issues 
commenters may wish to address:
    1. Should NTIA be aware of any potential applications where Project 
LEIA could make a particularly substantial contribution to policy 
research or development? Would any future work on Project LEIA help 
improve or expand these contributions?
    2. In the feasibility report,\8\ the Census Bureau describes the 
methodology it used in the experimental model and lists a number of 
potential predictor variables it tested before selecting the ones used 
in these initial estimates. Are there additional variables or data 
sources that should be considered to improve the model's predictive 
power? Should we consider any methodological refinements or 
modifications to this model to improve its performance?
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    \8\ U.S. Census Bureau, Local Estimates of internet Adoption: 
Feasibility Report, available at https://www.census.gov/data/experimental-data-products/local-estimates-of-internet-adoption.html.
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    3. While the current experimental model only produces estimates at 
the county level, the same principles can potentially be applied for 
other small geographies and populations. During the next phase of 
Project LEIA, NTIA and the Census Bureau intend to experiment with 
creating census tract-level estimates. Are there other small 
geographies or populations for which model-based estimates of internet 
adoption might be beneficial? What relevant data sources at that level 
could be considered to help generate these estimates?
    4. In this first phase, we decided to analyze the percentage of 
households subscribed to wired internet services. We did this because 
(a) the variable is useful for policymaking and (b) sufficient data 
were available to accurately fit a model. However, this is not the only 
metric that possibly could be modeled through future work. In addition 
to considering other variables from the ACS questions on computer and 
internet use, we are also interested in applying small area modeling to 
more detailed questions from the NTIA internet Use Survey. What metrics 
from either survey could we prioritize for future work under Project 
LEIA?
    5. Is there anything else NTIA should take into consideration when 
contemplating the further development of Project LEIA?

Stephanie Weiner,
Chief Counsel, National Telecommunications and Information 
Administration.
[FR Doc. 2024-20645 Filed 9-11-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-60-P