TPRC54 Paper and Poster Sessions
Friday, September 25, 2026 9:00 am Paper Sessions
Spectrum Policy
Valuing Federal Spectrum
Randall Berry, Northwestern University; Thomas Hazlett, Clemson University; Micha Honig, Northwestern University
Unifying Heterogeneous Spectrum Licenses Through an Open-source, Spatial-temporal Schema
Phillip Post, George Washington University
Private Property and the Public Spectrum Franchise
Gerald Adams, University of Pennsylvania
Digital Infrastructure and Indigenous Communities
Digital Infrastructure in Thin Markets: Economic Returns to Broadband on a Tribal Reservation
Pradyot Sharma, George Mason University; Thomas Stratmann, George Mason University
2.5 GHz Broadband Deployments in U.S. Tribal Areas: COVID-Era Stimulus, the Rural Tribal Priority Window, and Digital Sovereignty
Udayan Das, Saint Mary's College of California
Toward Meaningful Connectivity: Progress and Challenges in Isolated Developing Regions
Heather Hudson, University of Alaska Anchorage
Design and Policy
Shadow Archives in the Age of Extraction: Infrastructural Citizenship and the Technopolitics of AI Training Datasets
Ian Dunham, Kennesaw State University
Addictive Design as Attention Steering Mechanisms in Digital Platform Ecosystems: Evidence from Germany
Franziska Harpenau, WIK - Wissenschaftliches Institut für Infrastruktur und Kommunikationsdienste; Serpil Taş, WIK; Lukas Wiewiorra, WIK
Policy Design and Strategic Compliance: Incentives of Crypto Exchanges under EU's MiCA Framework
Yagiz Sen, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary
AI and the Law
Polycentric Governance Gaps in U.S. AI and Privacy Law
Isaac Haizel, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign; Julia Trevino, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign; Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign; Ece Gumusel, Rutgers University
The Crooked Brush: Against the Privatisation of Copyright Regulation in the Post-AI Era
Zachary Cooper, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam/Weizenbaum Institute, Australia
The High-Risk of ‘Small AI Harms’: A Policy Analysis of International Approaches to AI Governance
Boxi Chen, York University, Canada; Jonathan Obar, York University, Canada; Sachil Singh, York University, Canada
Data Centers
Governing Datacenter Growth: Regulatory Challenges, Technical Constraints, and Policy Responses Across States
Ahmed Saeed, Georgia Institute of Technology; Josiah Hester, Georgia Institute of Technology
The Economic Impacts of Data Centers in Rural Communities: A Narrative Review
Nelly Aghaei, Michigan State University; Johannes M. Bauer, Michigan State University; Jean Hardy, Michigan State University
Extraterrestrial Data Centers and the Gravitational Pull From Unresolved Legal and Regulatory Issues
Rob Frieden, Penn State University
2:00 pm Paper Sessions
Spectrum
Understanding the Geographic Dimension of Spectrum Values for Mid-Band Spectrum
Coleman Bazelon, The Brattle Group; Paroma Sanyal, The Brattle Group; Angela Gunn, The Brattle Group; Kaavyayani Pal, The Brattle Group; Nicole Chiu, The Brattle Group
Overlapping Rights in Orbit: Modeling Aggregate Interference and Spectrum Governance for Satellite Megaconstellations
Randall Berry, Northwestern University; Federico Bobbio, Northwestern University; Monisha Ghosh, University of Notre Dame; Dongning Guo, Northwestern University; Michael Honig, Northwestern University; Prashant Krishnamurthy, University of Pittsburgh; Ilia Murtazashvili, University of Pittsburgh
Detecting and Characterizing Change in Long-Term Passive Spectrum Monitoring
Naicheng Wei, Illinois Institute of Technology; Cynthia Hood, Illinois Institute of Technology
Rural Technology Access
Can Telecommunications Save Rural Hospitals? – The Potential and Limitations of TeleHealth and Hospital-at-Home to Providing Remote Healthcare
William Yurcik, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; Gregory Pluta, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Scott Kruse; University of Texas at El Paso; Diane Dolezel, Texas State University
Broken Backbones: Fiber Cuts, Power Failures, and a Socio-Economic View of Connectivity Resilience in Nigeria
Theophilus Benson, Carnegie Mellon University
AI Governance at the Administrative Frontier: Challenges of AI Adoption in Street-Level Public Administration in an Emerging Economy
Moinul Zaber, Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Sussex, United Kingdom; Eity Modhu, Data and Design Lab; Tariqul Islam, Data and Design Lab; Bulbul Ahmed, Data and Design Lab; Sarker Rumee, University of Dhaka
Competition
Effects of Platform Vertical Integration on Direct Competitors: Evidence from the Mobile Application Market
Mark Jamison, University of Florida; Jakub Tęcza, Boise State University; Peter Wang, St. Mary's College
The competitive impacts of horizontal mergers in the presence of cost asymmetry
Edmond Baranes, University of Montpellier, France; Hung Cuong Vuong, University of Paris-Est Creteil, France
When Does Wholesale Access Enable Competition? How Regulatory Rates Transform Strategic Interaction: A Game-Theoretic Analysis
Ashraf Al Daoud, TELUS Communications, Canada
AI Policy and Governance
Avoiding AI Fear Responses: Turning FOMO and FOBO into Democratically Driven Dynamic Use
Ruth Shillair, Michigan State University/Quello Center
Governing AI through Discourse: Ethics, Safety, and Institutional Authority
Melissa Wilfley, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Mengting Ai, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Marina Magana, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
When Software Strays: Principal-Agent Theory and the Governance of Agent Software
Brenden Kuerbis, Georgia Institute of Technology; Mohona Ghosh, Georgia Institute of Technology
Security Policy
The U.S. Submarine Cable Governance Gap
Anita Nikolich, University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign; Andrew Gallo, The George Washington University
From Rip-and-Replace to Route-and-Verify: Policy Implications of Real-Time Infrastructure Threat Detection for Securing Communications
kc claffy, UC San Diego; Alex Marder, Johns Hopkins University
Regulatory Divergence in Quantum Cyberspace
Wiktor Wilkołaski, War Studies University in Warsaw, Poland; Katarzyna Badźmirowska-Masłowska, War Studies University in Warsaw, Poland
4:00 pm Paper Sessions
Spectrum Markets
Market Concentration in the 900 MHz Band: An Empirical Analysis of FCC Spectrum Allocation Policy
Ravieshwar Singh, Protocol Law
Spectrum Sharing Rigidities: An Institutional Framework for Spectrum Access Rights
Michael Honig, Northwestern University; Randall Berry, Northwestern University; Thomas Hazlett, Clemson University
Market Signals without Mission Distortion: Auction Design for Scientific Spectrum Incumbents
Federico Bobbio, Northwestern University; Randall Berry, Northwestern University; Michael Honig, Northwestern University
Wireless Policy
Policy Reforms to Unlock the Potential of Small Cells for the AI/6G Future
William Lehr, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Doug Kirkpatrick, Eridan
Entrant Type and Incumbent Network Upgrades: Cable Operators’ DOCSIS 4.0 Deployment under Fiber and Fixed Wireless Entry
Yongjoon Paek, The Brattle Group; ElliePrice, The Brattle Group; Yongjoon Park, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Paroma Sanyal, The Brattle Group; Ethan Robertson, The Brattle Group
Sustainable Public WiFi: Hybrid Connectivity Architectures for Equitable Internet Access
Lee McKnight, Syracuse University; Danielle Smith, Syracuse University; Wisdom Donkor, Ministry of Communication, Digital Technology, and Innovations, (Ghana); Kwaku Antwi, Ministry of Communication, Digital Technology, and Innovations, (Ghana)
Emerging Technology Markets
Risk-Weighted Compute Permits for Frontier AI Governance: Market Design Under Imperfect Monitoring
Joel Naoki Ernesto Christoph, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University
Does AI Governance Pay? : Articulation Styles and Market Trust
Toshiya Jitsuzumi, Chuo University, Japan
*Lightening Talks
Questions to Guide a New Communications Act
Scott Jordan, University of California, Irvine
Women Entrepreneurs in Digital Space: ICT Use, Barriers, and Digital Violence in Mexico City
Clara-Luz Alvarez, Universidad Panamericana
Equity and AI
Building Equitable AI Ecosystems: Institutional Capacity, Partnerships, and Policy Implications at a Minority-Serving Institution
Christopher Lawson, North Carolina Central University; Shantel Reddick, North Carolina Central University; Siobahn Day Grady, North Carolina Central University
Who Will Benefit from GenAI Infrastructure?
Mihir Kshirsagar, Princeton University and Felix Chen, Princeton University
*Lightening Talks:
AI in Libraries: The Hidden Privacy Crisis
Laila Moustafa, University of Illinois
Structural Misalignment: Frontier AI Firms and the Limits of Defense Procurement
Nilufer Mistry Sheasby, Harvard University; Nathan Vemy, Dartmouth College
Responsible AI Beyond Ethical Principles: Building Accountability within AI Governance
Saharan Panjwani, The Dialogue
Policy Making
Why states need policy cornerstones to drive long-term broadband gains
Colby Humphrey, The Pew Charitable Trusts
Geopolitics and Technopolitics: Authorship, Funding, and Global Knowledge Production in AI Governance Research
Erika Wenhong Chen, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; Muyang Li, York University
On The Margins: Congress and Technical Expertise
Anna Lenhart, University of Maryland
Saturday, September 26, 2026 9:00 Paper Sessions
Broadband Policy
Connectivity Cost Burdens: Contingency cost measures for assessing household broadband affordability
Michel Mersereau, University of Toronto; Kaye Caronongan, University of Toronto
Laboratories of Broadband: An Analysis of the Institutional Design of State Broadband Authorities
Ahmed Al Rawi, University of Virginia; Benjamin W. Cramer, The Pennsylvania State University
From Measurement to Policy Design: A Convex Optimization Framework for Broadband Affordability
Laasya Koduru, University of California Santa Barbara; Kira Allmann, Joint Commission on Technology and Science; Tejas Narechania, University of California Berkeley; Elizabeth Belding, University of California Santa Barbara; Arpit Gupta, University of California Santa Barbara
Internet Infrastructure
On IP Addresses as Identifiers of Internet Users and Services
Rumaisa Habib, Stanford University; Sudheesh Singanamalla, Independent; Marwan Fayed, Cloudflare; Zakir Durumeric, Stanford University
Dissecting the cost of peering: Evidence from global data on IXPs
Amreesh Phokeer, Internet Society; Anirudh Tagat, Internet Society
Treaty Obligations Without Recognition Capacity: The Sendai Framework and Compound Infrastructure Attacks in the High North
Patricia Vargas Leon, Indiana University; Szymon Skalski, Jagiellonian University, Poland; Jorge Acevedo Canabal, Indiana University
Economic Impacts
The (Economic) Viability of Decentralized Computer Systems
David Clark, MIT CSAIL
“Neither Operationally Desirable nor Economically Practical”: A Political Economic Analysis of the Emergency Alert System
Matthew Conaty, University of Pennsylvania
Beyond Waste, Fraud and Abuse: The Economic Impact of Increasing Compliance Hurdles for the FCC’s Lifeline Program
Paroma Sanyal, The Brattle Group; Wonjun Chang, The Brattle Group; Coleman Bazelon, The Brattle Group; Natasha Abrol, The Brattle Group
AI, Algorithms and Governance
Transparency by Inquiry: Unveiling Speech Norms in AI Content Moderation
Maayan Perel, Netanya Academic College, Israel, Tel Aviv University; Niva Elkin Koren, Tel Aviv University; Shlomi Hod, Weizenbaum Institute, Germany
From Disclosure to Interpretability: Evaluating Algorithmic Transparency in Platform Governance
Bryan Boots, University of Missouri-Kansas City; Alex Krause Matlack, University of Missouri-Kansas City; Theo Richardson-Gool, Independent Researcher
Appropriate for Whom? A Participatory Study of Youth Perspectives on Age-Appropriate AI
Gowri Balasubramaniam, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
Regulation in Asia
Southeast Asia's Online Scam Crisis: AI-Enabled Transnational Crime and the Structural Limits of ASEAN's Cyber Governance
Monica Nila Sari, Keio University, Indonesia
Redrawing Boundaries, Restructuring Regimes: The U.S. Computer Inquiries and Korea’s Data Communications Regulatory Reforms
Hyesung Park, Korea University, Korea, Republic of South Korea; Hunyeong Kwon, Korea University, Korea, Republic of South Korea
Quantifying Multilateral Artificial Intelligence Policy Alignment in Southeast Asia
Huaigu Li, School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology; Michael Best, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology
11:00am Paper Sessions
Broadband and Equity
Digital Navigation as a Sociotechnical System: A State and National Digital Equity Policy Perspective
Colin Rhinesmith, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Ebubechukwu Uba, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Joanna Adewunmi, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Carolyn Bennett Glauda, Southeastern NY Library Resources Council
Can the Elephant Dance? An Assessment of the transformative Digital India initiative, its Implications and Impacts
Prabir Neogi, Carleton University
Decoding the Digital Divide: Identifying Distinct Structural Pathways to Broadband Non-Adoption Using Representation Learning
Hari Narayanan, BroadbandClusters
Telecommunications Policy Over Time
Silicon Solutions or Societal Shifts? Exploring the AI-SDG Nexus in the Age of Decentralized Social Media
Hrishitva Patel, University of Texas at San Antonio; Vishalakshi Arumugam, University of Texas at San Antonio; H. Raghav Rao, University of Texas at San Antonio; Yiran Su, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Anthony Rios, University of Texas at San Antonio; Kyrie Zhixuan Zhou, University of Texas at San Antonio
Local Skills, National Stakes: CPS Workforce Development and Resilient Telecommunications Infrastructure
Tatsuya Kurosaka, Georgetown University; Erika Heeren-Moon, Virginia Tech; Javaid Sofi, Virginia Tech; Mark Stanfield, Triple Point Security; Shin'ichiro Matsuo, Georgetown University; Eric Burger, Virginia Tech
From Universal Service to Build America: What 30 Years of Infrastructure Initiatives Can Teach Us About Data and Telecom Policy Implementation
Erika Heeren-Moon, Virginia Tech; Eric Burger, Virginia Tech
Procurement, Implementation, and Adoption
Government Procurement and the Structure of Digital Dependency
Rashna Kumar, Northwestern University; Marinho Barcellos, University of Waikato; Amreesh Phokeer, Internet Society; Fabián E. Bustamante, Northwestern University
Do Capital Incentives Distort Technology Diffusion? Evidence on Cloud, Big Data and AI
Timothy DeStefano, Georgetown University; Nick Johnstone, International Energy Agency; Richard Kneller, University of Nottingham; Jonathan Timmis, World Bank
Checking Out AI: What Drives Artificial Intelligence Adoption Among Public Library Workers?
Erezi Ogbo-Gebhardt, North Carolina Central University; Agnes Pearcy, North Carolina Central University
AI and the Public
AI Localism - Counter Imaginaries from City AI Governance
Bhavana Bheem, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Samuel Gerstein, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Generative AI as the Third Crisis of the Press: Inequality, Trust, and the Future of Publics
Juan Ortiz Freuler, University of Southern California; Bumju Jung, University of Southern California
Civil Society and Agility in AI Governance
Ganchimeg Namsrai, Department of Media and Information, Michigan State University; Johannes M. Bauer, Quello Center, Michigan State University; Ruth Shillair, Department of Media and Information, Michigan State University
Video and Streaming Platforms
The next generation of video media and the next generation of regulation: the policy and regulatory scenarios, how and by whom?
Eli Noam, Columbia University
Video Market Concentration and Consumer Costs: Evidence from Broadcast, Pay TV, and Online Video Markets, 1984–2025
Jason Buckweitz, Drexel Lebow College of Business
Beyond Scarcity and Gatekeepers: Algorithmic Recommender Systems as Editorial Speech and the Limit of First Amendment Protection
DongWook Jeong, Pennsylvania State University
2:00pm Paper Sessions
BEAD
Broadband After BEAD: The Emerging Policy Challenge of Network Availability
David Reed, University of Colorado Boulder; Jason Schnitzer, University of Colorado Boulder
Technology Neutrality Is Not Economic Neutrality: A General Equilibrium Analysis of BEAD Broadband Deployment
Wonjun Chang, The Brattle Group; Yongjoon Paek, The Brattle Group; Natasha Abrol, The Brattle Group; Paroma Sanyal, The Brattle Group; Coleman Bazelon, The Brattle Group
BEAD and Beyond: An Assessment of the Restructured Program, its Early Implementation, and Metrics to Guide States Forward
Johannes M. Bauer, Quello Center, Michigan State University; Angie Nam, Quello Center, Michigan State University; Boram Lee, Quello Center, Michigan State University; Elizabeth Mack, Department of Geography, Michigan State University; Colby Humphrey, Broadband Access Initiative, The Pew Charitable Trusts; Lexi West, Broadband Access Initiative, The Pew Charitable Trusts
Space Policy
Proximity Risks and Policy Gaps in the LEO Constellation Era
Ben Du, UCLA; Yuan Tian, UCLA; Liz Izhikevich, UCLA
LEO Satellite Internet in Armed Conflict: Telecommunications Governance between Territorial and Activation Authority
Leon Tinashe Gwaka, University of Pennsylvania; Justin (Gus) Hurwitz, University of Pennsylvania; Christopher Yoo, University of Pennsylvania
Measuring the Space Economy with Input-Output Linkages
Luisa Corrado, University of Cambridge; Christos Makridis, Arizona State University
Innovation Policy
Competing for the Future of AI: The Economic Incentives of Open-Source Foundation Models
Mark A. Jamison, Public Utility Research Center and Digital Markets Initiative, Warrington College of Business, University of Florida; Byoungmin Yu, Public Utility Research Center and Digital Markets Initiative, Warrington College of Business, University of Florida
Toward a Commercial-First Spectrum Doctrine: Aligning Military Requirements with Innovation Leadership
Roslyn Layton, Aalborg University, Denmark
Borderless Patents: How Foreign Patent Injunctions Undermine National Court Patent Jurisdiction
Enrico Bonadio, City St. George's University of London; David Katz, R Street Institute
Digital Inclusion
Above COPPA, Below Protection: Governing AI-mediated Health Information for Adolescents Ages 13-17
Karen V. Jenkins, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
Under-connectedness and its implications
Grant Blank, University of Oxford; Bibi Reisdorf, UNC Charlotte
Digital Welfare in Practice: What Claimant Communities Reveal About Universal Credit
Grant Blank, University of Oxford; Eglė Karpauskaite, University of Oxford
Mobile Networks
Maps Without Witnesses: Closing the Participation Gap in FCC Mobile Broadband Challenges
Morgan Vigil-Hayes, Michigan State University; Srichandana Julakanthi, Independent Researcher
Does the Hungarian mobile network sharing agreement harm social welfare? Empirical evidence on long-standing uncleared, yet ongoing coopetition
Pantelis Koutroumpis, University of Oxford, Oxford Martin School; Gábor Földes, Corvinus University of Budapest
The Long-Term Impacts of Net Neutrality Regulations: An Empirical Analysis of Mobile Networks and Consumer Welfare
Jakub Zagdanski, GSMA; Pau Castells, GSMA; Wolfgang Briglauer, Vienna University of Economics and Business; Jan Kraemer, University of Passau
Friday, September 25, 5:45pm Poster Session
Leveraging Large Language Models to Build Lightweight DNS Filtering Systems: Technical and Educational Reflections
Ryan Borowski, University of Texas at San Antonio; Sabastain Wakoyi, University of Texas at San Antonio; Kyrie Zhixuan Zhou, University of Texas at San Antonio
Secrecy, Spectrum, and Certification: Evidence from Wireless Electronic Devices
Ruby Zhang, Harvard University; Roberto Fontana, University of Pavia; Shane Greenstein, Harvard University; Do Yoon Kim, Boston College
The Kids Online Safety Act: Interrogating the Compatibility of Two Policy Goals
Joelle Saunders, Oxford Internet Institute
The Role of Network Quality on Adoption of FinTech and Financial Inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa Countries
Onkokame Mothobi, University of Botswana, Botswana; University of Witwatersrand