Notice2024-20645
Request for Comment on Local Estimates of internet Adoption
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
September 12, 2024
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentNational Telecommunications and Information Administration
Abstract
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.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 89 Issue 177 (Thursday, September 12, 2024)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 177 (Thursday, September 12, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 74220-74221]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[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
<a href="http://Regulations.gov">Regulations.gov</a> docket number NTIA-2024-0003, may be submitted through
the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal at <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a>. 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
<a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a> 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 <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#6b190c04070f090e190c2b051f020a450c041d"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="8af8ede5e6eee8eff8edcae4fee3eba4ede5fc">[email protected]</span></a>. Please direct media
inquiries to NTIA's Office of Public Affairs, at (202) 482-7002 or
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#93e3e1f6e0e0d3fde7faf2bdf4fce5"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="e29290879191a28c968b83cc858d94">[email protected]</span></a>.
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 <a href="https://www.ntia.gov/blog/2024/new-ntia-data-show-13-million-more-internet-users-us-2023-2021">https://www.ntia.gov/blog/2024/new-ntia-data-show-13-million-more-internet-users-us-2023-2021</a>.
\2\ 47 U.S.C. 1303(d).
\3\ U.S. Census Bureau, Digital Equity Act of 2021, available at
<a href="https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/community-resilience-estimates/partnerships/ntia/digital-equity.html">https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/community-resilience-estimates/partnerships/ntia/digital-equity.html</a>.
\4\ U.S. Census Bureau, ACCESS BROADBAND Act of 2021, available
at <a href="https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/community-resilience-estimates/partnerships/ntia/broadband-act.html">https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/community-resilience-estimates/partnerships/ntia/broadband-act.html</a>.
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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
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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 <a href="https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/geography-acs/areas-published.html">https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/geography-acs/areas-published.html</a>.
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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 <a href="https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/saipe.html">https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/saipe.html</a>.
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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 <a href="https://www.census.gov/data/experimental-data-products/local-estimates-of-internet-adoption.html">https://www.census.gov/data/experimental-data-products/local-estimates-of-internet-adoption.html</a>.
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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 <a href="https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/methodology/questionnaires/2022/quest22.pdf">https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/methodology/questionnaires/2022/quest22.pdf</a>;
Census Bureau Table S2801, available at <a href="https://data.census.gov/table/ACSST1Y2022.S2801">https://data.census.gov/table/ACSST1Y2022.S2801</a>.
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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 <a href="https://www.census.gov/data/experimental-data-products/local-estimates-of-internet-adoption.html">https://www.census.gov/data/experimental-data-products/local-estimates-of-internet-adoption.html</a>.
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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
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