Telecom industry associations have had little to say on the record so far on the tariffs President Donald Trump unveiled Wednesday. A baseline tariff rate of 10% on all imports takes effect Saturday, while China and EU countries that manufacture products used in the telecom sector face higher reciprocal tariffs starting next week.

NTIA should follow Texas' lead in applying a "technology neutral approach" to the BEAD program, wrote Joe Kane, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation director-broadband and spectrum policy, on Friday. Kane cited Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar's recent letter to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, regarding the state's nearly $1 billion in leftover BEAD funding. "This success is due to Texas’s ongoing efforts to connect remote areas with a variety of technologies, including a pioneering low-earth-orbit satellite broadband program," he said. The "most pressing change" is making BEAD tech-neutral, Kane said: "Texas has already proven that rapid and economically responsible deployment is possible. Now, the federal government should follow its lead."

A notice of inquiry about use of the upper C band for 5G may prove controversial given the implications for radio altimeters, industry experts said. The NOI proposes a study of 3.98-4.2 GHz spectrum, just above the spectrum sold in the record-breaking C-band auction, which ended in early 2021 (see 2102180041). FCC Chairman Brendan Carr initiated the NOI last week for a vote at the Feb. 27 open meeting. A radio altimeter is a device that measures the distance between an aircraft and the ground.

The FCC’s authority to regulate broadcast content is based on the scarcity of spectrum, but that authority is unconstitutional because spectrum’s scarcity doesn’t differentiate it from other resources such as land or oil, wrote Joe Kane, director-broadband and spectrum policy at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, in an essay the Federalist Society posted Tuesday. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s actions (see 2502050063) to investigate broadcasters over their content “are permitted within the current state of the law” because of court rulings that broadcasters enjoy fewer First Amendment protections due to spectrum’s scarcity, Kane said. “Those cases, and therefore the FCC’s authority to regulate the content transmitted over radio waves, are based on fundamental fallacies,” he wrote. “Land is scarce, but the fact that the government has granted or auctioned deeds doesn’t permit it to regulate the content of what landowners say.” The law also doesn’t apply the rationale of spectrum scarcity evenly, Kane pointed out. Wi-Fi signals are just as susceptible to interference as broadcast radio signals, he said. “Yet no one would countenance content-based control of all wireless internet traffic, even though the scarcity rationale would apply identically to those types of transmissions.” Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas questioned the validity of the spectrum scarcity rationale in his concurrence in FCC v. Fox, Kane said. “Do his colleagues agree?” he asked. “Spectrum is not so special a medium that it should be carved out of the First Amendment,” he wrote. “To the extent that any FCC action or any part of the Communications Act relies on the inverse assumption, it is unconstitutional.”

The Kids Off Social Media Act (KOSMA) would create redundant and conflicting regulations due to existing children’s privacy protections, the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation said Thursday.

The loss of funding under the Chips and Science Act of 2022 could mean companies will retreat from investments they’re making in the U.S., experts said Thursday during an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation webinar. Advanced chips are critical to smartphones and many other devices made and sold in the U.S., they noted. Few smartphones are made in the U.S., but chips are integral to other wireless gear manufactured here. Experts also said investment in chip research helps drive innovation in the communications sector.

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.