Broadband Spending the Main Focus, but NTIA Has Ambitious Agenda in 2023: Davidson

NTIA also is working to promote competition in the provision of wireless equipment, in part through open radio access networks, Davidson said. “One part of the problem is China, which has been sheltering and subsidizing national champion players for years, creating global security risks … that we simply can’t ignore anymore,” he said. NTIA will start awarding the first grants under the $1.5 billion for ORAN in the Chips and Science Act this year, he said.

Expect a focus on spectrum, Davidson said. NTIA is the manager of federal use of the airwaves, but “we also appreciate the imperative that the United States must continue to lead the world in innovative uses of wireless spectrum,” he said. Federal agencies are also focused on innovation, he said: “We have a limited scarce resource. We need to make sure that we can meet both the federal mission and the private sector mission.” Davidson said NTIA needs input from companies as the administration develops a national spectrum strategy.

Davidson also predicted a bigger NTIA focus on privacy. “The United States needs a comprehensive federal privacy law,” he said. NTIA will soon seek comment on civil rights and privacy, he said. Davidson called for more transparency for AI and machine learning. “Today, those systems remain very opaque -- it’s difficult to know whether they perform as claimed, whether they’re fair and unbiased, whether they are responsible with the data that they use,” he said.

“It is a very historic moment to be at NTIA, largely because of our work on connectivity,” Davidson said. “We have been talking about the digital divide in this country for over 20 years, but thanks to the bipartisan infrastructure law we have finally been given the resources, serious resources, to close that gap,” he said.

“This is a big one -- we do not often spend tens of billions of dollars as a country to do something like this and this kind of our one shot to get it right,” Davidson said: “This is our generation’s big infrastructure moment.” NTIA has already awarded more than $1.7 billion in grants to tribal communities “and that’s a huge investment in connectivity with a set of communities that really, really need it,” he said. “That is just a start,” he said.

“Spend a little time in the back of the show … looking for the really small booths,” Davidson advised attendees: “That is where you're going to find the people who are really passionate about some idea” and “where we know some of the biggest innovations come from,” he said.

Veneeth Iyengar, executive director of the Louisiana State Office of Broadband Development and Connectivity, said he had never been to CES before and was most impressed to see the kinds of connected tractors and equipment being shown by Caterpillar and John Deere.

Glimpsing the Future

“We look at what you guys are building and developing as a significant glimpse into the future,” Iyengar said. “It motivates states like us to work at a faster level of urgency to implement all the things” the federal government has been working on, he said. In Louisiana, about a third of the state population still doesn’t have access to high-speed, affordable, reliable internet, he said. Teachers in the state, healthcare providers, parents, small-business owners and farmers “are telling us [about] very different, unique ways that internet is going to be impactful to their lives,” he said. People in the state call every day because they don’t have access to broadband and want the state to move as quickly as it can, he said.

Leslie Barnes, senior director at Qualcomm, recalled a time she recently spent in a cabin in a remote area. Barnes said she started to download a webpage when she started to brew coffee, and by the time the coffee was ready the webpage hadn’t finished loading. “I realized quickly that I was unable to do any substantive work on my laptop,” she said: “This experience made me realize it’s important to ensure that affordable broadband access is available to all Americans.” In many areas, the government should recognize that fixed-wireless can be a viable alternative to cable, she said. “It’s cost-effective and can be deployed quickly,” she said.

At Amazon, “everything we do revolves around connectivity,” said Jaime Hjort, head-wireless and spectrum policy. “Half the people around the world, essentially, don’t have connectivity at all, or good connectivity,” she said. “There are really multiple technologies and multiple ways that we’re going to really solve this problem,” she said. Amazon is investing $10 billion in satellite broadband through Project Kuiper and satellite broadband “can really be part of the solution here,” she said: “We’re very confident that we can bring the cost down and really have this be an affordable solution.”

“This is sort of an historic moment for the agency and for the administration,” said Philip Murphy, NTIA senior adviser. “We’re working with states and localities to make sure that these funds are being used to help them solve the problems at the local levels,” he said. People should get the services they want, he said.