Request for Comment on Local Estimates of internet Adoption, 74220-74221 [2024-20645]
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Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 177 / Thursday, September 12, 2024 / Notices
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[Docket No. 240906–0233]
National Telecommunications and
Information Administration
ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
David Holst,
Chief Financial Officer/Administrative
Officer, Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric
Research, National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration.
[FR Doc. 2024–20693 Filed 9–11–24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–KA–P
RIN 0660–XC063
Request for Comment on Local
Estimates of internet Adoption
National Telecommunications
and Information Administration (NTIA),
U.S. Department of Commerce.
ACTION: Notice, request for public
comments.
AGENCY:
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.
SUMMARY:
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Please direct questions regarding this
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20:43 Sep 11, 2024
Jkt 262001
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Frm 00021
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Sfmt 4703
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 rgoldberg@ntia.gov.
Please direct media inquiries to NTIA’s
Office of Public Affairs, at (202) 482–
7002 or press@ntia.gov.
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
While these data products have
enabled a great deal of important
research and policy analysis, some
significant gaps remain in our
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-13million-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/programssurveys/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.
E:\FR\FM\12SEN1.SGM
12SEN1
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 177 / Thursday, September 12, 2024 / Notices
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 fiveyear time scale is not ideal for tasks like
conducting yearly program evaluation
or studying the impacts of relatively
sudden changes.
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.
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,
ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1
5 See
ACS ‘‘Areas Published,’’ available at https://
www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/geographyacs/areas-published.html.
6 See, e.g., U.S. Census Bureau, Small Area
Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) Program,
available at https://www.census.gov/programssurveys/saipe.html.
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
VerDate Sep<11>2014
20:43 Sep 11, 2024
Jkt 262001
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/experimentaldata-products/local-estimates-ofinternet-adoption.html.
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?
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
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.
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.
PO 00000
Frm 00022
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 9990
74221
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]
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E:\FR\FM\12SEN1.SGM
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Agencies
[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]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ See ACS ``Areas Published,'' available at https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/geography-acs/areas-published.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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