The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation raised concerns last week about NTIA's comments to the FCC on digital discrimination. NTIA's use of the term "pricing practices" was a "poor disguise" to encourage adoption of rate regulation, ITIF said in a letter posted Friday in docket 22-69 (see 2310060067). It would be "an extreme step that would be harmful to the goal of universal connectivity and continued broadband investment," the group said. ITIF encouraged the FCC to "resist mission creep" with its ultimate digital discrimination rules. The International Center for Law & Economics agreed, adding the FCC "has for years been explicit about its apprehension to impose direct rate regulation." It also asked the agency to reject NTIA's proposal to adopt a disparate impact standard in the definition of digital discrimination. "Mere statistical correlation between outcomes and protected characteristics is insufficient to demonstrate discrimination," the group said.
It’s good for the federal government to fund chips in states that have already spent their own money, rather than trying to spread money across every area that hasn’t invested in semiconductors, said panelists on an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) webinar Wednesday. State officials discussed their roles in helping the Chips Act succeed. “Piggybacking on the work we’re doing is what is going to see us succeed,” said Kevin Younis, New York Empire State Development chief operating officer. “There has to be strategic cluster-based investments [or] we’re not going to succeed. With the peanut butter spread over the whole sandwich, you won’t taste it.” States can help the Chips Act succeed by addressing the workforce gap and cutting red tape, said David Isaacs, Semiconductor Industry Association vice president-government affairs. "There's a huge gap throughout the economy in skilled workers," with the semiconductor industry “just a small slice of the overall pie,” said Isaacs. An SIA report said about 58% of needed jobs may not be filled, including engineers, computer scientists and technicians, he said: “We need to see federal-state partnerships with industry and education to train these workers.” Also, states can play an important role speeding projects by streamlining permitting and other regulatory approval processes, he said. Arizona Commerce Authority CEO Sandra Watson said her state is “constantly having conversations about the regulatory environment and how to make that easier on industry.”
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The U.S. government must take a host of actions to slow down Chinese "techno-economic dominance," including preventing Chinese firms from being listed on U.S. stock markets and limiting investment into China, Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, said in an Aug. 28 post.
The U.S. government must take a host of actions to slow down Chinese "techno-economic dominance," including preventing Chinese firms from being listed on U.S. stock markets and limiting investment into China, Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, said in an Aug. 28 post.
The Internet Technology and Innovation Foundation's Center for Data Innovation says The COOL Online Act, which exited the Senate Commerce Committee in late July (see 2307280069) "presents a significant risk for online retailers," and would result in uneven enforcement of country of origin labeling in stores and at retailers online.
As the FCC considers using a degraded throughput threshold for spectrum sharing among non-geostationary orbit satellite constellations, the result should be maximum use of the spectrum even through "productive interference" where the cost of mitigation overprotects some users, ITIF said Monday in docket 21-456. It also warned of the degraded throughput disincentivizing investments in better receivers, creating a "hecklers' veto," and urged the agency to adopt standardized antenna patterns that will receive FCC protection. That would prevent poorly performing receivers being a basis for claiming high degraded throughput, it said. And it urged an aggregate threshold that's parceled out among systems in later processing rounds that actually deploy.
Several groups supported T-Mobile’s proposed buy of Mint Mobile (see 2303150032) in filings at the FCC. While the review of acquisitions is “important, both from a national security and competition standpoint, the current administration’s posture has been far too extreme,” National Taxpayers Union said, posted Wednesday in docket 23-171. “This case should not warrant an excessive review process or lawsuits,” the group said: “In this case, at just north of $1 billion in value, this is not a blockbuster acquisition by the broader acquisitions market and even by T-Mobile’s standards, which just closed the Sprint acquisition only three years ago for $23 billion.” The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said the FCC should “narrowly tailor” its review to “the purposes of Section 214" of the Communications Act, which governs foreign ownership. T-Mobile is partly owned by Germany’s Deutsche Telekom. “Because this proposed merger presents little chance of consumer harm and a strong probability of consumer benefits, the Commission should approve it as consistent with the statute and recent Commission precedent,” ITIF said: Protecting the public interest “is only an intelligible principle when it is in service of the Commission’s statutorily prescribed authority. It is not a freewheeling grant to go on a generalized policymaking expedition.” Silicon Harlem also supported the transaction. “Carefully consider the potential positive impact this transaction can have on expanding affordable wireless access and promoting digital equity,” Silicon Harlem said. “By approving this acquisition, you would send a clear message that the FCC is committed to fostering the inclusion of historically underserved communities in the digital economy,” the group said. New York’s Capital Region Chamber also filed in support, citing the “connectivity challenges that rural communities continue to face.”
Forcing tech companies to pay usage fees to European ISPs could be “discriminatory” and damage net neutrality, NTIA argued in the European Commission’s public consultation on EU investment in digital communications networks.
The Chips and Science Act offers $39 billion to boost the U.S. semiconductor industry, but many applicants could come away empty-handed, said Michael Schmidt, director of the Commerce Department’s CHIPS Program Office, at an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation conference Wednesday.