NTIA, FCC Not Clear on Desired Goals of Broadband Adoption Initiatives, GAO Says
NTIA missed an opportunity in not assessing which approaches to broadband adoption were the most effective while various Broadband Technologies Opportunities Program projects were in progress, GAO said in a report released Tuesday. “NTIA and FCC have limited information about…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
the performance of their broadband adoption efforts and have not established goals articulating the outcomes these efforts should achieve,” GAO said. “Because BTOP has concluded, NTIA missed an opportunity to evaluate which grantees’ approaches were the most effective.” The FCC and NTIA both have programs to address broadband adoption barriers, “but it is unclear what outcomes they intend to achieve with these efforts because FCC’s strategic plan and NTIA’s performance plan do not clearly communicate the agencies’ desired outcomes for their efforts to address broadband adoption barriers,” GAO said. NTIA said in response it would “seek to develop outcome-based measures if it received funding for broadband adoption grants,” GAO said. The FCC also responded. “FCC states that to the extent that its strategic plan is unclear on the role of broadband adoption in FCC’s efforts, it is prepared to implement revisions that will help clarify this issue,” GAO said.