It's "shameful" that "nearly half of all humanity" lacks internet access, said ITU Telecom Development Bureau Director Doreen Bogdan-Martin Wednesday in prerecorded remarks during a TPRC virtual conference. Getting people connected "requires a laser focus" on "innovative, responsive, [and] adaptive regulation, innovative financing models, and innovative people-centric multistakeholder partnerships," Bogdan-Martin said: "Business as usual isn't going to cut it this time around, and we cannot sit back and hope that market forces alone will bridge the connectivity chasm." Giga, an initiative led by ITU and UNICEF, expects to complete connectivity mapping of 1 million schools in 36 countries to "connect at least 1,000 schools in each of our first 17 priority countries" by Dec. 31, Bogdan-Martin said.

Dish Network is suing an Iraqi streaming service and set-top box maker and a Michigan reseller, claiming the iStar service is infringing on copyright by carrying a variety of international broadcast channels in the U.S. that are exclusively licensed to Dish. In a complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit (docket 2:21-cv-12219), Dish said it and the networks sent nearly 70 notices to iStar between March 2016 and the filing of the complaint, and iStar stopped responding in 2019. Defendant reseller Atlas Satellite didn't comment.

More than 7 billion antennas for IoT devices will ship globally by 2025, nearly three times the current volume, reported ABI Research Wednesday. “With new product launches and evolution of existing devices requiring multiple radios, smaller form factors, and greater device breadth, OEMs are increasingly challenged both at the design phase and when getting their products to market,” it said. “If the antenna is not designed and integrated properly at the beginning of the process, an OEM is very likely to encounter higher costs, delays, and even product failure at the certification stage,” said analyst Tancred Taylor.

The reconstituted Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council will be co-chaired by an official from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and a Verizon executive, FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Tuesday. They are Billy Bob Brown, CISA executive assistant director-emergency communications, and Nasrin Rezai, Verizon chief information security officer. Other members are in this issue's personals section. Collaboration with CISA "will help advance a whole-of-government approach to security and ensure that the relevant federal expertise is informing policymaking at the FCC,” Rosenworcel said: More participation by public interest groups “means that the public and consumers also will have a voice on issues that ultimately affect their safety and security.”

Developing “inclusive” digital trade rules with Indo-Pacific “trusted partners” should be a “critical element” of a broader U.S. trade agenda “to counter protectionist digital economy trends,” safeguard U.S. workers’ interests and bolster U.S. opportunities, CTA, the Information Technology Industry Council, National Retailer Federation and 15 other groups wrote U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai Friday. USTR should take the lead in developing a new “plurilateral” digital trade agreement or pursue the expansion of existing pacts, said the groups, also including BSA|The Software Alliance, the Computer & Communications Industry Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. They urged USTR to “prioritize engagement with Indo-Pacific economies” to advance new digital trade rules and “re-assert U.S. leadership on trade policy in this strategically important region.” USTR didn’t comment Monday.

The Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry took a hard line on a letter that 13 House Commerce Committee Republicans sent Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Thursday seeking DOT information on reports that U.S. officials approved licensing applications for Huawei to buy U.S. semiconductors for China’s next-generation autonomous vehicles. The GOP members asked Buttigieg to respond by Sept. 23 to a dozen questions about the reports, including whether he’s concerned that Huawei is looking for a U.S. “foothold” to steal information on Americans and gather intelligence on the U.S. “transportation infrastructure.” The 13 “thieving” U.S. politicians “have the nerve to call others thieves,” responded the ministry spokesperson Friday. “When it comes to stealing and gathering information, the U.S. is the true world champion.” Huawei has “openly announced” to the world “its readiness to sign no-backdoor agreements and to launch cybersecurity assessment centers in any country to receive external testing,” he said. “I wonder if U.S. companies dare to do the same.” DOT didn’t respond to questions.

No single company or country can “effectively produce semiconductors,” said Semiconductor Industry Association CEO John Neuffer on a Center for Strategic and International Studies webinar Wednesday about opportunities for U.S.-South Korea collaboration to bolster global supply chain resilience. “For better or for worse, and by far for better,” semiconductors are a “global business with global supply chains, and the last thing we should be doing is putting up barriers to innovation in our policies,” he said. East Asia produces “the most sophisticated, the most advanced semiconductors” in nodes below 10 nanometers, said Neuffer. Taiwan produces 92% of those devices, South Korea the rest, he said: “Do we want to put up barriers to that kind of innovation as we’re going forward with our manufacturing incentives or our other policies? No, I don’t think we do.” It’s not the goal of the U.S. semiconductor industry to “onshore everything,” said Neuffer. “We’re trying to diversify our supply chains and spread out our risk.” The industry doesn’t want to “create an environment” that encourages “important players like Samsung” -- a “massive’ U.S. investor -- to stay “offshore,” he said. “We want to bring the innovation onshore. That creates more competition here and helps us ensure that U.S.-headquartered companies again take the lead when it comes to the most advanced chips.” Samsung didn’t respond Thursday to requests for comment.

PayPal will pay $2.7 billion to buy Paidy, a provider of buy now, pay later solutions in Japan, said the buyer Tuesday. This will expand PayPal's domestic payments presence in Japan, the No. 3 e-commerce market behind China and the U.S., it said. Paidy will continue to operate its own business and maintain its brand, it said. The transaction is expected to close in Q4.

BBC and Netflix will for five years develop and fund new content featuring "disabled creatives both in front of and behind the camera,” they said Friday. Their goal is to “widen the range of stories produced and give disabled writers and creatives greater choice when it comes to the sort of stories they wish to tell,” they said: BBC will take the lead in accepting “project submissions and pitches.”

"Zero tariff" mobile data packages violate open internet access rules, the European Court of Justice ruled Thursday. EU law also outlaws limitations on bandwidth, tethering or on use when roaming when using such a package, ECJ said. It defined zero tariff options as commercial practices in which access providers apply either no charge or an advantageous one to data traffic associated with an application or category of specific apps offered by their partners. The data isn't counted toward the data volume purchased, making offers more attractive to users. The case arose from a Vodafone offering that German telecom regulator Bundesnetzagentur found breached the EU roaming regulation and barred the operator from using. Vodafone appealed. The high court found that a zero tariff option such as the one at issue "draws a distinction within internet traffic, on the basis of commercial considerations, by not counting towards the basic package traffic to partner applications," in breach of the roaming regulation.