The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has yet to implement most of the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) priority recommendations for improving the agency’s operations, including modernizing legacy IT systems, according to a report released on June 29.
The federal watchdog said it identified 11 priority recommendations for NTIA in July 2025. Since then, NTIA has implemented only one, leaving 10 recommendations still open, GAO said.
Among the most significant outstanding issues is NTIA’s effort to modernize the custom IT systems it uses to manage federal radio-frequency spectrum. GAO said those systems are outdated and while NTIA awarded contracts in 2024 to support modernization work, the agency has yet to implement recommended planning and cybersecurity practices needed to guide the effort.
“As NTIA continues its modernization efforts, implementing these practices would better ensure the success of these efforts,” GAO said to Arielle Roth, NTIA’s assistant secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, in a letter contained in the report.
NTIA’s efforts to modernize its spectrum management-related IT systems date to 2021, when Congress required the agency to create a plan for the modernization. Radio-frequency spectrum is vital to a variety of commercial and government activities, such as broadcast television, air traffic control, and wireless communications.
The report also highlighted several broader GAO recommendations for managing radio-frequency spectrum that NTIA has not implemented. They include suggestions that NTIA, in consultation with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other federal agencies, monitor and keep up to date its collaboration guidance for spectrum management – and that NTIA “establish shared procedures for the design of spectrum studies that agencies use during domestic and international spectrum management activities.”
NTIA and the FCC regulate and manage radio-frequency spectrum use, which the report called “a scarce natural resource used to support an increasing number of public and private-sector activities.”
Additionally, the GAO report said NTIA needs to implement its recommendations for better management of federal broadband programs. After statutes passed between 2020 and 2024 appropriated more than $82 billion to programs across multiple agencies to improve broadband access, GAO recommended that NTIA better communicate projects’ financial sustainability to Congress and continue to improve collaboration with other federal providers of broadband funding.
“Taking these steps will help ensure Congress is properly informed about the finances of NTIA’s programs and reduce potential waste in broadband programs,” the GAO report said.
“Broadband access is critical for economic development. Yet, many communities remain unserved or underserved, particularly in very rural areas and on tribal lands.”
Overall, GAO told Roth that its open recommendations in these areas “warrant your timely and focused attention” and that fully implementing them “could significantly improve NTIA’s operations.”
“We would welcome an opportunity to discuss how to address our open recommendations, as we pursue the shared goal of working to increase efficiency and effectiveness of government programs and spending,” the letter to Roth concluded.
MeriTalk reached out to NTIA for comment but had not received a response by publication.