Local governments should reject calls to establish government-owned broadband networks (GON), said a new Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) report released Monday. The group evaluated the "finances, regulatory status, and economic sustainability" of 20 GONs and found that favoring these networks "wastes societal resources, creates unfair competition, and is frequently unsustainable in the long run." Local governments "are not well equipped to build and operate broadband networks and are likely to waste the resources they employ," ITIF said. Although acknowledging GONs have a role in broadband deployment, the group urged that officials refrain from "selective deployment or cherry-picking" GONs over private ISPs to prevent overbuilding.

The top lawmaker on the House Select Committee on China called on the U.S. to continue imposing strict export controls and investment restrictions against China, adding that those tools must be coupled with bolder investments in innovative American companies if the U.S. wants to “win” its technology competition with China.

The U.S. should use its Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain executive order as a tool to restrict a broader range of imports that are dumped by foreign companies in the U.S., said Rush Doshi, a Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow and former National Security Council official. He also said the administration and Congress should work to codify the ICTS order, which could allow the U.S. to better harmonize the restrictions with allies.

AI is “part of everything” and will only grow in importance, but the U.S. is falling behind other countries in developing AI policy, Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., said Thursday during the Augmented and Virtual Reality Conference. “Innovation and technology are moving forward and policy is falling further and further behind,” DelBene said. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and the Extended Reality Association (XR) sponsored the conference at the AT&T Forum.

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation warned of potential unintended consequences if the FCC approves industrywide handset unlocking rules, as proposed in a July NPRM (see 2407180037). Comments were due Monday in docket 24-186. “The NPRM’s tentative conclusions in favor [of] a uniform 60-day unlocking requirement overstate the benefits of the Commission’s proposal relative to its costs,” ITIF warned. Handsets are often tied to a carrier because they are subsidized, the group added. “This bargained-for exchange is beneficial to consumers who may be more price sensitive and thus willing to forgo some future flexibility in exchange for more money in their pockets at the time of purchase,” ITIF said: “Mandatory unlocking denies consumers this choice.” Incompas supports unlocking requirements, President Angie Kronenberg said Monday. "The practice of locking phones makes it more difficult for consumers to change providers,” she said: “Unlocking requirements allow customers to switch networks more easily, which means larger providers are incentivized to compete for customers rather than locking them into a plan -- enabling smaller providers to better compete.”

Stopping U.S. firms from participating in RISC-V, an open-source semiconductor architecture that policymakers fear China will use to evade export controls, would only hurt American innovation and competitiveness, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said this month.

Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

The next administration should look to raise criminal penalties for trade theft, broaden the scope of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and refocus its export controls on military technologies to better compete with China, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said this week. ITIF also said the U.S. should push for a new “techno-economic alliance” of key trading partners and develop a new multilateral export control regime focused on semiconductors and artificial intelligence.

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said in a report Monday that no state "is performing particularly strongly or particularly poorly in every area examined” as plans for the broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program take shape. In a report card, ITIF gave better grades to states whose plans include using a variety of network technologies, streamlining regulations and crafting digital inclusion strategies. ITIF awarded A’s to Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Idaho, Oregon and Virginia. Receiving C's, the nonprofit's lowest grade, were Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Montana and Nevada. No state’s “trajectory is set in stone,” ITIF noted. “Addressing broadband needs and successfully implementing the BEAD program is a complex, ongoing task that requires a thoughtful, collaborative approach and must be able to adjust when the broadband landscape, available resources, or even community needs change.”

The Biden administration could impede U.S. competitiveness if it codifies new cloud service regulations that force the tech industry to monitor and share data about foreign customers with the government, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and IBM told the Commerce Department in comments due Monday. Telecom associations worried that definitions for cloud service companies might be too broad.