Joe Kane, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation broadband and spectrum policy director, urged Congress Monday to “create a more targeted and durable” version of the FCC’s lapsed affordable connectivity program “by aligning funding priorities with the remaining causes of the digital divide." Kane added: "By prioritizing affordability rather than deployment, the new program can connect low-income households without new federal spending.” He suggested Congress should revise ACP rules to provide its previous $30 monthly broadband subsidy but restrict it to “households at or below 135 percent of the federal poverty level or in their first three months of unemployment insurance.” Now-Vice President-elect JD Vance and Senate Communications Subcommittee then-Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., in May proposed the same change to ACP eligibility as part of an unsuccessful bid to give the program $6 billion in stopgap funding via an FCC reauthorization package (see 2405080047). There “is good reason to think” ACP’s eligibility criteria, including allowing a household to qualify if its combined income were up to 200% of the federal poverty line, “were overinclusive,” Kane said. He discounted proposals restricting ACP funding to first-time broadband subscribers, saying objections “on these grounds make the category mistake of conflating affordability with choices made under a budget constraint.”

The Bureau of Industry and Security's upcoming export controls on advanced AI semiconductors will introduce hurdles that could push U.S. allies closer to China, a technology think tank and a semiconductor industry group said this week. Both the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and the Semiconductor Industry Association urged President Joe Biden's administration to reverse course. ITIF said it should “immediately” rethink the "overdesigned, yet underinformed" restrictions, which are expected to be published as an interim final rule before Biden leaves office. SIA, "deeply concerned by the unprecedented scope and complexity" of the potential regulation, asked the government to instead issue the restrictions as a proposed rule -- which would allow for industry feedback and possible revisions without a set effective date -- or allow the new Trump administration to decide how to move forward.

Several additional groups filed at the FCC this week urging that it approve T-Mobile’s proposed purchase of "substantially all” of UScellular’s wireless operations (see 2501080071). The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation told the FCC the deal promotes wireless competition. The FCC “should be guided by the fact that the public interest is best served by maximizing the productivity of spectrum,” ITIF said: The proposed transaction “would transfer spectrum from the hands of a struggling company, UScellular, to a major carrier with the economies of scale to provide more consumer benefits at a lower per-unit cost of production.” TechFreedom said the public interest statement and other documents the companies submitted “paint a bleak future for UScellular, and more importantly, for UScellular customers, without approval” of the deal. “Far from being a ‘maverick’ that can disrupt even local markets, UScellular is losing the economic battle to remain solvent and relevant,” TechFreedom said. UScellular is a “regional carrier lacking the necessary subscriber and financial resources to fund the full deployment of 5G services,” the group said. The U.S. Black Chambers and U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce jointly urged approval. “For Black and Hispanic business owners, expanded network infrastructure ensures equitable access to essential tools such as e-commerce platforms, cloud-based solutions, and digital marketing strategies that drive growth,” they said. The League of United Latin American Citizens said integrating UScellular’s assets into T-Mobile’s network “will significantly enhance network capacity, deliver faster speeds, and reduce congestion, providing substantial benefits to consumers in underserved areas.” Some 40% of UScellular’s coverage “serves rural populations, where access to robust and reliable wireless services is essential,” the league said.

A policy analyst with Washington think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation argues that CBP should conduct randomized audits using forensic testing technology to ensure that goods imported from Chinese e-commerce platforms, such as Temu, are abiding by federal regulations aimed at preventing the use of forced labor from the Uyghur Autonomous Region in China.

The Bureau of Industry and Security's upcoming export controls on advanced AI-related semiconductors will introduce expansive compliance hurdles and sales limitations that will hurt American firms and could push U.S. allies to work closer with China, a major technology think tank and a leading semiconductor industry group said this week.

It's "not too late" for Nevada to change course on its BEAD plan, Information Technology & Innovation Foundation Director-Broadband and Spectrum Policy Joe Kane blogged Thursday. Kane said the state's provisional choices for allocating its funding, which required NTIA approval, "reflect a misunderstanding of the digital divide." The state could deploy high-speed low-earth-orbit satellite service for $600 per location. "Nevada could use savings from a more reasonable deployment plan to provide a similar affordability benefit to its low-income residents" as the FCC's affordable connectivity program, he said. Nevada's Office of Science, Innovation & Technology didn't comment. Kane also urged NTIA to revise its fiber preference in BEAD program rules (see 2412130011). NTIA should stop its "irrational preferencing of fiber deployments and require that states choose the most economical technologies to complete deployment so that leftover funds can address more widespread and serious causes of the digital divide," he said.

International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

Running a large trade surplus with the U.S. is only one way to draw President-elect Donald Trump's tariff fire, argues a new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation; other ways would be by expecting the U.S. to provide a defense umbrella, enacting digital services taxes or other anti-U.S. regulations, and taking what ITIF called "soft positions toward China."

Information Technology and Innovation Foundation arguments against publicly owned broadband networks (see 2412020039) reach a "laughable conclusion" that such systems don't address market failures, American Association for Public Broadband Executive Director Gigi Sohn said Monday. "Tell that to the tens of millions of U.S. households that cannot access, afford, or use a broadband connection," Sohn said. "Community broadband networks have arisen because big cable and telecom companies refuse to serve some communities with affordable and robust broadband." Sohn said ITIF's report is "full of weasel words and meaningless phrases" and ignores the huge public spending and in-kind contributions that have benefited those companies.

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.