Analysis: FCC attempt to restore Net Neutrality & U.S. standards for broadband reliability, security, and consumer protection
FCC Chairwoman Rosenworcel announced the tentative agenda for the April 2024 Open Meeting scheduled for 10:30 am EDT on Thursday, April 25, 2024. As part of the agenda, the Commission will consider a draft Declaratory Ruling, Order, Report and Order, and Order on Reconsideration (Order) that would restore Net Neutrality [1.] and bring back a national standard for broadband reliability, security, and consumer protection.
Note 1. Net neutrality is a concept that internet service providers (ISPs) should treat all data on the internet equally. This means that ISPs should not block, slow down, or charge more money for access to certain websites or services. Net neutrality is important because it helps to ensure that everyone has equal access to the internet.
If the FCC order is approved, the Chairwoman’s proposal would ensure that broadband services are treated as an essential resource deserving of FCC oversight under Title II authority [2].
Note 2. U.S. carriers providing “telecommunications services,” are regulated under Title II. of the 1934 U.S. Communications Act.
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What the Declaratory Ruling and Order Would Do:
Classify broadband Internet access service as a telecommunications service and classify mobile broadband Internet access service as a commercial mobile service.
Find that reclassification would provide the Commission with additional authority to safeguard national security, advance public safety, protect consumers, and facilitate broadband deployment.
Find that classification of broadband Internet access service as a telecommunications service represents the best reading of the text of the Act, and that such reclassification accords with Commission and court precedent and is fully justified under the Commission’s long standing authority to classify services subject to its jurisdiction.
Establish broad, tailored forbearance—including no rate regulation, no tariffing, no unbundling of last-mile facilities, and no cost accounting rules—in the FCC’s application of Title II to broadband Internet access service providers (ISPs).
What the Report and Order Would Do:
Reinstate straightforward, clear rules that prohibit blocking, throttling, or engaging in paid or affiliated prioritization arrangements, and adopt certain enhancements to the transparency rule.
Reinstate a general conduct standard that prohibits unreasonable interference or unreasonable disadvantage to consumers or edge providers.
Make clear that the Commission will employ a case-by-case review under sections 201 and 202 to ensure that Internet traffic exchange practices do not harm the open Internet.
Establish a multi-faceted enforcement framework comprised of advisory opinions, enforcement advisories, Commission-initiated investigations, and informal and formal complaints.
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Legal Opinions on FCC net neutrality draft order:
Legal experts and FCC watchers say the net neutrality draft order on the FCC’s April 25th open meeting agenda will face legal arguments similar to what the 2015 net neutrality order did, with many of the same parties involved.
Starting with a briefing for reporters the day before the draft order was released, the FCC argued the proposed rules would survive legal challenge. Net neutrality rules are “wildly popular,” Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in California last week, adding the draft rules are “court approved.” Rosenworcel said, “I want to make sure that they are again the law of the land.”
Major Questions:
The proposed order is “legally vulnerable,” Free State Foundation President Randolph May told Commissioner Brendan Carr, according to a filing Friday in docket 23-320. May said it was “extraordinary … for an agency to propose burdensome restrictive major regulatory mandates without any meaningful evidence of any present harm to consumers or competition.”
Daniel Deacon, assistant professor at the University of Michigan Law School, pointed to Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s dissent as a D.C. circuit judge in the 2017 en banc affirmation of the 2015 net neutrality rules. Kavanaugh argued that imposing net neutrality rules via Title II represents a “major” policy that requires clear congressional authorization under the major questions doctrine, and that such authorization was lacking, Deacon said: SCOTUS “could reach that conclusion regardless of what they end up doing in Loper Bright and Relentless.”
The commission tries to head off major questions arguments in the draft order. “We do not think the major-questions doctrine properly comes into play in this context at all,” it said. “We are simply following the best reading of the Communications Act, as demonstrated by the statute’s plain text, structure, and historical context: there is no call for deference to an interpretation that is not the statute’s most natural reading.”
The rules won’t “have the extraordinary economic and political effect required to implicate the major-questions doctrine,” according to the draft order.
While the rules “will have substantial benefits for the American public … not every regulatory action that has substantial effects is so momentous as to trigger the major-questions doctrine. The Internet will continue to sustain its enormous economic and social value under our actions today, just as it did under the 2015 Order.”
The pending net neutrality order “is the antithesis of the Supreme Court’s major-questions cases,” the FCC said. “There is nothing novel about the Commission’s exercise of its classification power here,” as the agency has exercised it numerous times, it said. “Regulating communications services and determining the proper regulatory classification of broadband falls squarely within the Federal Communications Commission’s wheelhouse,” the commission said.
Cato’s Skorup disagreed. The agency sees national security implications in net neutrality and finds that it’s important for free speech, “telegraphing they believe” it’s a major question, he said.
It’s unclear how the Supreme Court seemingly heading toward some change to its Chevron doctrine would play out in the inevitable appeal of the FCC’s order. The net neutrality issue isn’t about the FCC having superior insight into the nature of broadband but is a political question about oversight, said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, American Action Forum president. By the time a net neutrality case comes before the D.C. Circuit, there would likely be a SCOTUS ruling affecting Chevron, and the appellate court would have to be guided by it, he said.
CCIA’s Joyce said that even if SCOTUS rejects Chevron, that doesn’t apply to net neutrality, since it doesn’t involve a brand new and novel FCC action. “How can you possibly say that about whether broadband is a Title II service?” she asked. “This stuff is old.”
Some see a net neutrality legal fight charting new territory. The draft order is broader than 2015’s, with issues of national security and broadband contributing to Universal Service Fund (USF), so there are several different issues than were involved in the past, said Holtz-Eakin.
While it seems likely that SCOTUS will curtail or reject the Chevron doctrine sometime this summer, that isn’t going to deter the FCC, Skorup said. But it could change how the D.C. Circuit — which upheld the 2015 net neutrality order — approaches things, he said. Given SCOTUS reversals of the D.C. Circuit on federal agency deference issues, such as 2021’s Alabama Association of Realtors decision, “I would hope the D.C. Circuit would get the message … that it needs to apply more scrutiny than it is giving agencies currently,” he said.
“The net neutrality rule will undoubtedly be characterized by the reviewing court as a major question because it is an issue of ‘vast economic and political significance,’” emailed Thomas McGarity, University of Texas’ Lozano Long Professor in Administrative Law. “That being the case, Chevron will be inapplicable,” he said: “The court will only ask whether Congress has clearly authorized the agency to promulgate the rule. The clarity of the authorization will be the primary issue on appeal.”
Other lawyers said it’s not preordained that the order will be overturned.
“It’s important to remember that the only reason why broadband is an ‘information service’ is because of Chevron deference,” said Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2003 ruled that cable modem service was a telecom service, he said. SCOTUS’ 2005 Brand X decision, then “reversed the 9th Circuit on the grounds of Chevron deference. In 2019, the 2017 order rolling back the 2015 net neutrality rules survived a challenge at the D.C. circuit only because of precedent,” Feld said.
Two of the judges, Patricia Millett and Robert Wilkins, indicated they would have found the rollback order “arbitrary … but for Chevron and Brand X. One cannot help what activist judges will do,” but if the pending order is returned to the D.C. Circuit, “I would expect it to be affirmed,” Feld added.
The Supreme Court held in Brand X that the FCC has the discretion to decide how to classify broadband, emailed Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman.
“If, as is likely, the Chevron, and Brand X precedents will be modified to some degree this spring, and depending on what the Court says, the matter might then have to be resolved by analysis of the text,” he said.
Perkins Coie’s Martin said it’s likely the D.C. Circuit could affirm the FCC’s action again, as there’s consistent precedent that agency action on the matter is OK. However, if SCOTUS overturns Chevron, the appellate court may feel compelled to come out differently, he said. And if the D.C. Circuit overturns the FCC, SCOTUS could very well deny any subsequent cert petition by the agency, he said. Schwartzman questioned whether SCOTUS will ultimately hear the case. The court is “loath to overrule precedent unless absolutely necessary,” he said.
CTIA discussed concerns about how non-broadband internet access services are treated under the draft net neutrality order circulated by Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. In meetings with staff for all five commissioners, CTIA asked the FCC to remove warnings not present in the 2015 order. Non-BIAS services, and network slicing, have emerged as major issues. The draft “favorably references non-BIAS use cases that ‘cannot be met over the Open Internet,’ but any suggestion that an offering that can function to some extent over BIAS must be offered over BIAS would be a dramatic shift from the 2015 framework,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 23-320. The draft also says the commission “will closely monitor any services that have a negative effect on the performance of BIAS in any given moment or the capacity available for BIAS over time” and that the commission “will be watchful of services that do not require isolated capacity.
CTIA said, “The 2015 Order did not set forth any of these rigid warnings, and for good reason. The net effect of such guidance could restrict the offering of non-BIAS services. Customers would lose out on choice and innovation, and networks would operate less efficiently.”
References:
Link to the Draft Declaratory Ruling, Order, Report and Order, and Order on Reconsideration: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-401676A1.pdf
Link to the April 25, 2024 Meeting webpage: https://www.fcc.gov/april-2024-open-commission-meeting
https://www.fcc.gov/document/promoting-fast-open-and-fair-internet
https://www.reuters.com/technology/fcc-vote-restore-net-neutrality-rules-reversing-trump-2024-04-02/
FCC Draft Net Neutrality Order reclassifies broadband access; leaves 5G network slicing unresolved
FCC Votes to Reverse Net Neutrality & No Longer Regulate Broadband Internet Services
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Is FCC Net Neutrality Rollback Coming? Will that spark cablcos investment in rural/ suburban areas?
https://communicationsdaily.com/article/view?search_id=851581&id=1935719
Quintessent: Supporting “newer AI workloads” with lasers and DWDM
Integrated-photonics companies have increasingly seized on the opportunities in advanced AI. Many are building high-speed optical interconnects for data centers, with the electrical–optical conversion as close as possible to the number-crunching GPU or application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC).
However, Goleta, CA based startup Quintessent, is focusing on solving what it says is a major bottleneck hindering commercial deployment of such high-speed optical interconnects for AI – the light source or laser, which is currently the “weakest link” in system reliability and scalability, according to co-founder and CEO, Alan Liu.
Quintessent’s answer lies in part in its laser technology, incorporating quantum dots (QDs)—the semiconductor nanocrystals celebrated in the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry—and multiwavelength comb lasers. The firm believes that combination can boost bandwidth, improve efficiency and cut latency by enabling highly parallel dense wavelength-division multiplexed (DWDM) optical links for computing clusters and data centers. And in late March, the company announced that it had secured US$11.5 million in new seed funding to push its vision closer to commercialization.
Quintessent was co-founded in 2019 by Optica Fellow John Bowers of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), USA, who serves as the company’s board chairman, and Liu, formerly a student in Bowers’ lab. In a conversation with OPN in November 2023, Liu noted that his Ph.D. work in the lab, which spanned the years from 2011 to 2017, focused on what he called “one of the glaring holes in silicon photonics”: how to integrate the light source. His work specifically involved integration of QD lasers with silicon photonics, which subsequently became “one of the core technologies for Quintessent.”
Quintessent co-founders Alan Liu (left) and John Bowers. Image: Courtesy of A. Liu.
Even at that time, Liu had some stirrings in the direction of commercializing the technology. Ultimately, though, after earning his Ph.D. in 2017, he left Santa Barbara for a two-year stint at a consulting firm in the Washington, DC, area. There, he worked as a subject-matter expert in photonics on projects for the US Department of Defense’s advanced-research arm, DARPA, and the US Department of Energy’s counterpart, ARPA-E.
Still, the entrepreneurial itch never quite left Liu. Nor did his fascination with the promise of QD laser technology, as he saw subsequent work done in Bowers’ lab to further advance the performance of those lasers and demonstrate new functions with them, including multiwavelength comb sources.
In 2019, Liu says, he got a call from Bowers, who noted that he was seeing “a lot of interest” from industry in the technology the lab was developing, but that there was “no company to sell it.” When Bowers asked if he wanted to help start one up, Liu recalls, “it didn’t take me long to sign on and say yes.” In the course of the next few years, they built Quintessent’s core team, drawing on numerous other contacts both within and outside of Bowers’ UCSB lab, and pulled in a mix of government R&D and venture funding, including the $11.5 million seed round announced in March 2024. The business case for Quintessent, Liu says, rests largely on “some of the newer AI workloads that were coming into the fray” beginning in the late 2010s, and their immense appetite for computing resources and power.
“If you’re going to be optimizing for power efficiency and bandwidth and latency, the required architecture is one that’s wide and parallel,” he explains. And for optics, at some point, trying to achieve that level of parallelism by adding more and more spatial or fiber channels becomes unwieldy.
The alternative solution, Liu says, is a highly parallel DWDM architecture—using not lots of fibers but “lots of lambdas.” For the crushing workloads of advanced AI, DWDM is optimal, as it “allows you to both simultaneously optimize bandwidth and minimize power and latency,” without relying on digital signal processing or a potential rat’s nest of individual fiber interconnects to boost overall bandwidth.
One key for achieving that vision was “enabling a new kind of laser, and using that laser to enable new communication and transceiver architectures,” according to Liu. “That was a common gap I saw across the industry.” Particularly in the context of AI, Liu observes, a big argument for better lasers has to do with reliability.
Particularly in the context of AI, Liu observes, a big argument for better lasers—and especially for Quintessent’s concept of simplifying wavelength scaling using multiwavelength comb sources fabricated from InAs/GaAs QD material—has to do with reliability. “Optical solutions for AI are going to have to be at least an order of magnitude more reliable than what we see today in existing transceivers,” he maintains. “If you imagine a scenario where there’s 10 times more optics deployed, and your failure rates stay the same, then you’ve got 10 times more failures you’re asking the customer to deal with. That gets a little dicey.”
An atomic force microscopy (AFM) image of InAs/GaAs quantum dots. Image: Courtesy of A. Liu
Getting to better overall reliability will require much more reliable lasers, Liu believes, as lasers are “kind of the weakest link at the moment.” And he and the Quintessent team think that QD lasers offer a way forward, as they are “intrinsically more reliable than quantum well materials today.”
Tobias Egle, a materials scientist who works with M Ventures, one of the partners in the most recent Quintessent funding round, explained the difference further in a separate call with OPN. “These QD lasers are not as affected by material defects, dislocations and so on,” Egle says. “Simply put, a single dislocation through the facet or active region of a traditional laser can lead to complete failure. In contrast, when you have billions of QDs which are independent of one another, the presence of a single dislocation has a negligible impact on your overall performance.”
Quintessent experienced a milestone a year ago, when the company and Tower Semiconductor—the Israel-based global foundry firm with which Quintessent had partnered since 2021—announced that they had achieved what they called the world’s first heterogenous integration of GaAs quantum dot lasers in a commercial foundry silicon photonics process. The pair also unveiled a foundry silicon platform, PH18DB, targeted for the telecom and datacom optical transceiver market, and an accompanying process development kit (PDK).
Meanwhile, on the funding side, Quintessent announced an oversubscribed US$11.5 million seed round in March 2024, with an investment group led by Osage University Partners (OUP) and including, in addition to M Ventures, participation by previous Quintessent funders Sierra Ventures, Foothill Ventures and Entrada Ventures. In a press release accompanying the recent funding announcement, Liu said the new money would let the company “grow our team and accelerate the development of highly scalable and highly reliable optical interconnects that transcend the scaling limitations of incumbent solutions,” based on the firm’s core technology of QD-enabled multiwavelength comb lasers.
Operationally, Liu told OPN that—having “checked off all of the fundamental technology questions” regarding the laser technology’s feasibility—Quintessent is now focused on optimizing the laser design, which he calls “a key Lego block,” and of other pieces of the overall architecture to validate system-level functionality. Then, an important next step will be getting chips into customers’ hands for ground-truthing and feedback, and using that feedback to “drive forward the commercialization roadmap.”
“So samples, then low-volume pilots, then high-volume manufacturing—simple, right?” he laughs. Liu seems exhilarated by the challenge. “I’m one of those people that liked to play video games in the hard, hard mode,” he says. “If it’s too easy, you don’t get much enjoyment out of it.”
References:
https://www.optica-opn.org/Home/Industry/2024/April/Quintessent_Targets_Lasers_for_AI
Co-Packaged Optics to play an important role in data center switches
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Sharing of lower 3 GHz band in U.S. is unclear after DoD redacted report
The U.S. wireless industry would like to use the lower 3 GHz band, but it’s currently occupied by the military. The DoD says sharing between federal and commercial systems is not feasible unless certain conditions are met. Sharing between federal radar and mobile systems presents unique challenges, especially for airborne operations.
The DoD acknowledges the potential of freeing up some of the spectrum for 5G use, emphasizing that in order to make the lower 3 GHz band available for commercial use a “coordination framework must facilitate spectrum sharing in the time, frequency, and geography domains,” notes Broadband Breakfast.
5G already coexists with U.S. military systems in the lower 3 GHz band in more than 30 countries, said Umair Javed, CTIA senior vice president-spectrum. However, the future of the lower 3 GHz band in the U.S. is unsettled following DoD’s public release last week of a redacted version of its Emerging Mid-Band Radar Spectrum Sharing Feasibility Assessment [1.].
Note 1. Emerging Mid-Band Radar Spectrum Sharing Feasibility Assessment report
This redacted DoD report examines military systems located in lower 3 GHz spectrum, with an eye on potential sharing but not on clearing as sought by CTIA and carriers. It concludes that sharing the 3.1-3.45 GHz band between federal and commercial systems is not currently feasible “unless certain regulatory, technological, and resourcing conditions are proven and implemented.” The report originally came out in September 2023.
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DoD Chief Information Officer John Sherman said in February the department is willing to consider clearing part of the band “perhaps for future airborne radars,” which wasn’t part of EMBRSS. The spectrum is home to the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS), which DOD is upgrading. Airborne radars are considered the most difficult to address in a sharing regime because they are so mobile.
The lower 3 GHz is one of a few bands allowing for military radars “with small enough antenna apertures” to be mobile, with “sufficient range capabilities to serve as medium and long-range radars,” the study says. It notes the propagation characteristics of mid-band spectrum, which also make it a top target of carriers. “A complicating factor … has been the increased packing of federal systems relocated from other bands, including those as a result of repurposing from previous auctions,” the study says.
DoD found that more than 120 different ground-based, ship-borne and airborne radars use the band. While details are redacted, the report offers basic information on how the bands are used, for everything from land-based radar for tracking threats to Coast Guard and Navy search and rescue missions to air-traffic control to tracking bird migrations with an eye toward avoiding collisions. It also discusses the Department of Homeland Security’s uses.
But EMBRSS says sharing is possible using a dynamic spectrum management system (DSMS). It cites sharing in the citizens broadband radio service band. A DSMS, which “evolves the CBRS framework … with advanced interference mitigation features” addressing the unique needs of airborne systems, “provides a feasible path forward for spectrum sharing between the Federal and commercial systems,” EMBRSS said.
Blair Levin wrote Wednesday in a note to New Street clients.:
“The report’s most significant implications for investors involve what the DOD report did not do. It did not resolve any issues or provide a timetable for doing so. Thus, we remain far from resolving the question of where the spectrum that the wireless carriers argue they will need by 2027 will come from. While some advocate exclusive licensing of the band, and others sharing, DOD “almost certainly retains a veto power over any potential outcome,” he said.
DoD leaders, including John Sherman, the Pentagon’s top IT official, met Monday with the National Spectrum Consortium, a group of more than 350 members of academia and industry who work with the electromagnetic spectrum, to take the first steps to outline a framework to share the bandwidth with industry and to kickstart a discussion on a spectrum management program.
“No surprise. We know that spectrum will be challenging,” said Kevin Mulvihill, the Pentagon’s deputy chief information officer for command, control and communications. “But we need to work together across industry, government and academia to explore potential ways to achieve spectrum coexistence for the benefit of the entire nation while ensuring that the spectrum sharing that we choose does not negatively affect the primary mission of the Department of Defense.”
References:
https://dodcio.defense.gov/Portals/0/Documents/Library/DoD-EMBRSS-FeasabilityAssessmentRedacted.pdf
https://www.fierce-network.com/5g/dod-releases-long-awaited-report-lower-3-ghz
If the Pentagon has to share 5G spectrum, it wants some new ground rules – Breaking Defense
NTT & Yomiuri: ‘Social Order Could Collapse’ in AI Era
From the Wall Street Journal:
Japan’s largest telecommunications company and the country’s biggest newspaper called for speedy legislation to restrain generative artificial intelligence, saying democracy and social order could collapse if AI is left unchecked.
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, or NTT, and Yomiuri Shimbun Group Holdings made the proposal in an AI manifesto to be released Monday. Combined with a law passed in March by the European Parliament restricting some uses of AI, the manifesto points to rising concern among American allies about the AI programs U.S.-based companies have been at the forefront of developing.
The Japanese companies’ manifesto, while pointing to the potential benefits of generative AI in improving productivity, took a generally skeptical view of the technology. Without giving specifics, it said AI tools have already begun to damage human dignity because the tools are sometimes designed to seize users’ attention without regard to morals or accuracy.
Unless AI is restrained, “in the worst-case scenario, democracy and social order could collapse, resulting in wars,” the manifesto said.
It said Japan should take measures immediately in response, including laws to protect elections and national security from abuse of generative AI.
A global push is under way to regulate AI, with the European Union at the forefront. The EU’s new law calls on makers of the most powerful AI models to put them through safety evaluations and notify regulators of serious incidents. It also is set to ban the use of emotion-recognition AI in schools and workplaces.
The Biden administration is also stepping up oversight, invoking emergency federal powers last October to compel major AI companies to notify the government when developing systems that pose a serious risk to national security. The U.S., U.K. and Japan have each set up government-led AI safety institutes to help develop AI guidelines.
Still, governments of democratic nations are struggling to figure out how to regulate AI-powered speech, such as social-media activity, given constitutional and other protections for free speech.
NTT and Yomiuri said their manifesto was motivated by concern over public discourse. The two companies are among Japan’s most influential in policy. The government still owns about one-third of NTT, formerly the state-controlled phone monopoly.
Yomiuri Shimbun, which has a morning circulation of about six million copies according to industry figures, is Japan’s most widely-read newspaper. Under the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his successors, the newspaper’s conservative editorial line has been influential in pushing the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to expand military spending and deepen the nation’s alliance with the U.S.
The two companies said their executives have been examining the impact of generative AI since last year in a study group guided by Keio University researchers.
The Yomiuri’s news pages and editorials frequently highlight concerns about artificial intelligence. An editorial in December, noting the rush of new AI products coming from U.S. tech companies, said “AI models could teach people how to make weapons or spread discriminatory ideas.” It cited risks from sophisticated fake videos purporting to show politicians speaking.
NTT is active in AI research, and its units offer generative AI products to business customers. In March, it started offering these customers a large-language model it calls “tsuzumi” which is akin to OpenAI’s ChatGPT but is designed to use less computing power and work better in Japanese-language contexts.
An NTT spokesman said the company works with U.S. tech giants and believes generative AI has valuable uses, but he said the company believes the technology has particular risks if it is used maliciously to manipulate public opinion.
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From the Japan News (Yomiuri Shimbun):
Challenges: Humans cannot fully control Generative AI technology
･ While the accuracy of results cannot be fully guaranteed, it is easy for people to use the technology and understand its output. This often leads to situations in which generative AI “lies with confidence” and people are “easily fooled.”
･ Challenges include hallucinations, bias and toxicity, retraining through input data, infringement of rights through data scraping and the difficulty of judging created products.
･ Journalism, research in academia and other sources have provided accurate and valuable information by thoroughly examining what information is correct, allowing them to receive some form of compensation or reward. Such incentives for providing and distributing information have ensured authenticity and trustworthiness may collapse.
A need to respond: Generative AI must be controlled both technologically and legally
･ If generative AI is allowed to go unchecked, trust in society as a whole may be damaged as people grow distrustful of one another and incentives are lost for guaranteeing authenticity and trustworthiness. There is a concern that, in the worst-case scenario, democracy and social order could collapse, resulting in wars.
･ Meanwhile, AI technology itself is already indispensable to society. If AI technology is dismissed as a whole as untrustworthy due to out-of-control generative AI, humanity’s productivity may decline.
･ Based on the points laid out in the following sections, measures must be realized to balance the control and use of generative AI from both technological and institutional perspectives, and to make the technology a suitable tool for society.
Point 1: Confronting the out-of-control relationship between AI and the attention economy
･ Any computer’s basic structure, or architecture, including that of generative AI, positions the individual as the basic unit of user. However, due to computers’ tendency to be overly conscious of individuals, there are such problems as unsound information spaces and damage to individual dignity due to the rise of the attention economy.
･ There are concerns that the unstable nature of generative AI is likely to amplify the above-mentioned problems further. In other words, it cannot be denied that there is a risk of worsening social unrest due to a combination of AI and the attention economy, with the attention economy accelerated by generative AI. To understand such issues properly, it is important to review our views on humanity and society and critically consider what form desirable technology should take.
･ Meanwhile, the out-of-control relationship between AI and the attention economy has already damaged autonomy and dignity, which are essential values that allow individuals in our society to be free. These values must be restored quickly. In doing so, autonomous liberty should not be abandoned, but rather an optimal solution should be sought based on human liberty and dignity, verifying their rationality. In the process, concepts such as information health are expected to be established.
Point 2: Legal restraints to ensure discussion spaces to protect liberty and dignity, the introduction of technology to cope with related issues
･ Ensuring spaces for discussion in which human liberty and dignity are maintained has not only superficial economic value, but also a special value in terms of supporting social stability. The out-of-control relationship between AI and the attention economy is a threat to these values. If generative AI develops further and is left unchecked like it is currently, there is no denying that the distribution of malicious information could drive out good things and cause social unrest.
･ If we continue to be unable to sufficiently regulate generative AI — or if we at least allow the unconditional application of such technology to elections and security — it could cause enormous and irreversible damage as the effects of the technology will not be controllable in society. This implies a need for rigid restrictions by law (hard laws that are enforceable) on the usage of generative AI in these areas.
･ In the area of education, especially compulsory education for those age groups in which students’ ability to make appropriate decisions has not fully matured, careful measures should be taken after considering both the advantages and disadvantages of AI usage.
･ The protection of intellectual property rights — especially copyrights — should be adapted to the times in both institutional and technological aspects to maintain incentives for providing and distributing sound information. In doing so, the protections should be made enforceable in practice, without excessive restrictions to developing and using generative AI.
･ These solutions cannot be maintained by laws alone, but rather, they also require measures such as Originator Profile (OP), which is secured by technology.
Point 2: Legal restraints to ensure discussion spaces to protect liberty and dignity, and the introduction of technology to cope with related issues
･ Ensuring spaces for discussion in which human liberty and dignity are maintained has not only superficial economic value, but also a special value in terms of supporting social stability. The out-of-control relationship between AI and the attention economy is a threat to these values. If generative AI develops further and is left unchecked like it is currently, there is no denying that the distribution of malicious information could drive out good things and cause social unrest.
･ If we continue to be unable to sufficiently regulate generative AI — or if we at least allow the unconditional application of such technology to elections and security — it could cause enormous and irreversible damage as the effects of the technology will not be controllable in society. This implies a need for rigid restrictions by law (hard laws that are enforceable) on the usage of generative AI in these areas.
･ In the area of education, especially compulsory education for those age groups in which students’ ability to make appropriate decisions has not fully matured, careful measures should be taken after considering both the advantages and disadvantages of AI usage.
･ The protection of intellectual property rights — especially copyrights — should be adapted to the times in both institutional and technological aspects to maintain incentives for providing and distributing sound information. In doing so, the protections should be made enforceable in practice, without excessive restrictions to developing and using generative AI.
･ These solutions cannot be maintained by laws alone, but rather, they also require measures such as Originator Profile (OP), which is secured by technology.
Point 3: Establishment of effective governance, including legislation
･ The European Union has been developing data-related laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation, the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act. It has been developing regulations through strategic laws with awareness of the need to both control and promote AI, positioning the Artificial Intelligence Act as part of such efforts.
･ Japan does not have such a strategic and systematic data policy. It is expected to require a long time and involve many obstacles to develop such a policy. Therefore, in the long term, it is necessary to develop a robust, strategic and systematic data policy and, in the short term, individual regulations and effective measures aimed at dealing with AI and attention economy-related problems in the era of generative AI.
･However, it would be difficult to immediately introduce legislation, including individual regulations, for such issues. Without excluding consideration of future legislation, the handling of AI must be strengthened by soft laws — both for data (basic) and generative AI (applied) — that offer a co-regulatory approach that identifies stakeholders. Given the speed of technological innovation and the complexity of value chains, it is expected that an agile framework such as agile governance, rather than governance based on static structures, will be introduced.
･ In risk areas that require special caution (see Point 2), hard laws should be introduced without hesitation.
･ In designing a system, attention should be paid to how effectively it protects the people’s liberty and dignity, as well as to national interests such as industry, based on the impact on Japan of extraterritorial enforcement to the required extent and other countries’ systems.
･ As a possible measure to balance AI use and regulation, a framework should be considered in which the businesses that interact directly with users in the value chain, the middle B in “B2B2X,” where X is the user, reduce and absorb risks when generative AI is used.
･ To create an environment that ensures discussion spaces in which human liberty and dignity are maintained, it is necessary to ensure that there are multiple AIs of various kinds and of equal rank, that they keep each other in check, and that users can refer to them autonomously, so that users do not have to depend on a specific AI. Such moves should be promoted from both institutional and technological perspectives.
Outlook for the Future:
･ Generative AI is a technology that cannot be fully controlled by humanity. However, it is set to enter an innovation phase (changes accompanying social diffusion).
･ In particular, measures to ensure a healthy space for discussion, which constitutes the basis of human and social security (democratic order), must be taken immediately. Legislation (hard laws) are needed, mainly for creating zones of generative AI use (strong restrictions for elections and security).
･ In addition, from the viewpoint of ecosystem maintenance (including the dissemination of personal information), it is necessary to consider optimizing copyright law in line with the times, in a manner compatible with using generative AI itself, from both institutional and technological perspectives.
･ However, as it takes time to revise the law, the following steps must be taken: the introduction of rules and joint regulations mainly by the media and various industries, the establishment and dissemination of effective technologies, and making efforts to revise the law.
･ In this process, the most important thing is to protect the dignity and liberty of individuals in order to achieve individual autonomy. Those involved will study the situation, taking into account critical assessments based on the value of community.
References:
‘Joint Proposal on Shaping Generative AI’ by The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings and NTT Corp.
Major technology companies form AI-Enabled Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Workforce Consortium
MTN Consulting: Generative AI hype grips telecom industry; telco CAPEX decreases while vendor revenue plummets
Cloud Service Providers struggle with Generative AI; Users face vendor lock-in; “The hype is here, the revenue is not”
Amdocs and NVIDIA to Accelerate Adoption of Generative AI for $1.7 Trillion Telecom Industry
Major technology companies form AI-Enabled Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Workforce Consortium
A consortium of major tech companies, including Cisco, Accenture, Eightfold, Google, IBM, Indeed, Intel, Microsoft and SAP have formed the AI-Enabled Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Workforce Consortium with the aim of assessing “AI’s impact on technology jobs” and identifying “skills development pathways for the roles most likely to be affected by artificial intelligence.”
Francine Katsoudas, executive VP and chief people, policy and purpose officer at Cisco, stated:
“AI is accelerating the pace of change for the global workforce, presenting a powerful opportunity for the private sector to help upskill and re-skill workers for the future. The mission of our newly unveiled AI-Enabled Workforce Consortium is to provide organisations with knowledge about the impact of AI on the workforce and equip workers with relevant skills. We look forward to engaging other stakeholders – including governments, NGOs, and the academic community – as we take this important first step toward ensuring that the AI revolution leaves no one behind.”
The formation of the Consortium is catalyzed by the work of the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council Talent for Growth Task Force, Cisco Chair and CEO Chuck Robbins’ participation in the Task Force, and input from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Advisors include the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, CHAIN5, Communications Workers of America, DIGITALEUROPE, the European Vocational Training Association, Khan Academy, and SMEUnited.
Working as a private sector collaborative, the Consortium is evaluating how AI is changing the jobs and skills workers need to be successful. The first phase of work will culminate in a report with actionable insights for business leaders and workers. Further details will be shared in the coming months. Findings will be intended to offer practical insights and recommendations to employers that seek ways to reskill and upskill their workers in preparation for AI-enabled environments.
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Author’s Note: The consortium was likely formed to retrain workers to use AI technology, else they would be laid off or fired. In a recent survey from McKinsey, 25% of business professionals said that they expect their employer to lay off staff as a result of AI adoption. Their pessimism isn’t misplaced. According to one estimate, around 4,000 workers have lost their jobs to AI since May. And in a poll from Beautiful.ai, which makes AI-powered presentation software, nearly half of managers said that they’re hoping to replace workers with AI.
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Consortium members represent a cross section of companies innovating on the cutting edge of AI that also understand the current and impending impact of AI on the workforce. Individually, Consortium members have documented opportunities and challenges presented by AI. The collaborative effort enables their organizations to coalesce insights, recommend action plans, and activate findings within their respective broad spheres of influence.
The Consortium’s work is inspired by the TTC’s Talent for Growth Task Force and Cisco Chair and CEO Chuck Robbins’ leadership of its skills training workstream, and input from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The TTC was established in June 2021 by U.S. President Biden, European Commission President von der Leyen, and European Council President Michel to promote U.S. and EU competitiveness and prosperity through cooperation and democratic approaches to trade, technology, and security.
“At the U.S. Department of Commerce, we’re focused on fueling advanced technology and deepening trade and investment relationships with partners and allies around the world. This work is helping us build a strong and competitive economy, propelled by a talented workforce that’s enabling workers to get into the good quality, high-paying, family-sustaining jobs of the future. We recognize that economic security and national security are inextricably linked. That’s why I’m proud to see the efforts of the Talent for Growth Task Force continue with the creation of the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.
“I am grateful to the consortium members for joining in this effort to confront the new workforce needs that are arising in the wake of AI’s rapid development. This work will help provide unprecedented insight on the specific skill needs for these jobs. I hope that this Consortium is just the beginning, and that the private sector sees this as a call to action to ensure our workforces can reap the benefits of AI.”
The AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium’s efforts address a business critical and growing need for a proficient workforce that is trained in various aspects of AI, including the skills to implement AI applications across business processes. The Consortium will leverage its members and advisors to recommend and amplify reskilling and upskilling training programs that are inclusive and can benefit multiple stakeholders – students, career changers, current IT workers, employers, and educators – in order to skill workers at scale to engage in the AI era.
In its first phase of work, the Consortium will evaluate the impact of AI on 56 ICT job roles and provide training recommendations for impacted jobs. These job roles include 80% of the top 45 ICT job titles garnering the highest volume of job postings for the period February 2023-2024 in the United States and five of the largest European countries by ICT workforce numbers (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands) according to Indeed Hiring Lab. Collectively, these countries account for a significant segment of the ICT sector, with a combined total of 10 million ICT workers.
Consortium members universally recognize the urgency and importance of their combined efforts with the acceleration of AI in all facets of business and the need to build an inclusive workforce with family-sustaining opportunities. Consortium members commit to developing worker pathways particularly in job sectors that will increasingly integrate artificial intelligence technology. To that end, Consortium members have established forward thinking goals with skills development and training programs to positively impact over 95 million individuals around the world over the next 10 years.
Consortium member goals include:
- Cisco to train 25 million people with cybersecurity and digital skills by 2032.
- IBM to skill 30 million individuals by 2030 in digital skills, including 2 million in AI.
- Intel to empower more than 30 million people with AI skills for current and future jobs by 2030.
- Microsoft to train and certify 10 million people from underserved communities with in-demand digital skills for jobs and livelihood opportunities in the digital economy by 2025.
- SAP to upskill two million people worldwide by 2025.
- Google has recently announced EUR 25 million in funding to support AI training and skills for people across Europe.
Accenture
“Helping organizations identify skills gaps and train people at speed and scale is a major priority for Accenture, and this consortium brings together an impressive ecosystem of industry partners committed to growing leading-edge technology, data and AI skills within our communities. Reskilling people to work with AI is paramount in every industry. Organizations that invest as much in learning as they do in the technology not only create career pathways, they are well positioned to lead in the market.” – Ellyn Shook, Chief Leadership & Human Resources Officer, Accenture
Eightfold
“The dynamics of work and the very essence of work are evolving at an unprecedented pace. Eightfold examines the most sought-after job roles, delving into the needs for reskilling and upskilling. Through its Talent Intelligence Platform, it empowers business leaders to adapt swiftly to the changing business environment. We take pride in contributing to the creation of a knowledgeable and responsible resource that assists organizations in preparing for the future of work.” – Ashutosh Garg, CEO and Co-Founder, Eightfold AI
“Google believes the opportunities created by technology should truly be available to everyone. We’re proud to join the AI-Enabled Workforce Consortium, which will advance our work to make AI skills training universally accessible. We’re committed to collaborating across sectors to ensure workers of all backgrounds can use AI effectively and develop the skills needed to prepare for future-focused jobs, qualify for new opportunities, and thrive in the economy.” – Lisa Gevelber, Founder, Grow with Google
IBM
“IBM is proud to join this timely business-led initiative, which brings together our shared expertise and resources to prepare the workforce for the AI era. Our collective responsibility as industry leaders is to develop trustworthy technologies and help provide workers—from all backgrounds and experience levels—access to opportunities to reskill and upskill as AI adoption changes ways of working and creates new jobs.” – Gian Luigi Cattaneo, Vice President, Human Resources, IBM EMEA
Indeed
“Indeed’s mission is to help people get jobs. Our research shows that virtually every job posted on Indeed today, from truck driver to physician to software engineer, will face some level of exposure to GenAI-driven change. We look forward to contributing to the Workforce Consortium’s important work. The companies who empower their employees to learn new skills and gain on-the-job experience with evolving AI tools will deepen their bench of experts, boost retention and expand their pool of qualified candidates.” – Hannah Calhoon, Head of AI Innovation at Indeed
Intel
“At Intel, our purpose is to create world-changing technology that improves the lives of every person on the planet, and we believe bringing AI everywhere is key for businesses and society to flourish. To do so, we must provide access to AI skills for everyone. Intel is committed to expanding digital readiness by collaborating with 30 countries, empowering 30,000 institutions, and training 30 million people for current and future jobs by 2030. Working alongside industry leaders as part of this AI-enabled ICT workforce consortium will help upskill and reskill the workforce for the digital economy ahead.” – Christy Pambianchi, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer at Intel Corporation
Microsoft
“As a global leader in AI innovation, Microsoft is proud to join the ICT Workforce Consortium and continue our efforts to shape an inclusive and equitable technology future for all. As a member of the consortium, we will work with industry leaders to share best practices, create accessible learning opportunities, and collaborate with stakeholders to ensure that workers are equipped with the technology skills of tomorrow,” – Amy Pannoni, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, HR Legal at Microsoft
SAP
“SAP is proud to join this effort to help prepare our workforce for the jobs of the future and ensure AI is relevant, reliable, and responsible across businesses and roles. As we navigate the complexities of our ever-evolving world, AI has the potential to reshape industries, revolutionize problem-solving, and unlock unprecedented levels of human potential, enabling us to create a more intelligent, efficient, and inclusive workforce. Over the years, SAP has supported many skills building programs, and we look forward to driving additional learning opportunities, innovation, and positive change as part of the consortium.” – Nicole Helmer, Vice President & Global Head of Development Learning at SAP
About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide technology leader that securely connects everything to make anything possible. Our purpose is to power an inclusive future for all by helping our customers reimagine their applications, power hybrid work, secure their enterprise, transform their infrastructure, and meet their sustainability goals. Discover more on The Newsroom and follow us on X at @Cisco.
Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco’s trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company.
Executive Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Competition Margaret Vestager and US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo join Consortium members in Belgium. Photo Credit: Cisco
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References:
Big tech companies form new consortium to allay fears of AI job takeovers
New ETSI Reports: 1.] Use cases for THz communications & 2.] Frequency bands of interest in the sub-THz and THz range
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) released a pair of reports from its relatively new Terahertz Industry Specification Group (ISG THz), created in December 2022. The reports envision how 6G technology might develop and what it will do. Importantly, the reports dive into more than a dozen 6G use cases – from remote surgery to real-time industrial control – as well as the terahertz spectrum bands where that might happen.
“The role of ETSI ISG THz is to develop an environment where various actors from the academia, research centres, industry can share, in a consensus-driven way, their pre-standardization efforts on THz technology resulting from various collaborative research projects and global initiatives, paving the way towards future standardization,” the organization wrote in a press release.
The first Report ETSI GR THz 001 identifies and describes use cases either enabled by or highly benefiting from the use of THz communications. Aspects addressed in the document include deployment scenarios, potential requirements, relevant operational environments and their associated propagation characteristics and/or measurements.
With the large amount of bandwidth available in THz bands, it is possible to achieve extremely high data rates and ease spectrum scarcity problems. Moreover, specific propagation properties of THz signals unlock new features such as accurate sensing and imaging capabilities. The above properties of THz communications open the way to enabling new use cases and could provide an answer to new societal challenges that need to be addressed by the future 6G communications systems. Some of these challenges relate to new functionalities that are not currently supported by cellular systems (e.g. accurate sensing, mapping, and localization), while others relate to new use cases that were not supported by previous communications systems.
The report defines the new use cases that the THz communications and sensing systems can support, along with summarizing the requirements of those use cases. For each identified use case, the report provides description of the deployment scenario, pre‑conditions required for the use case deployment, an example of service flows through a communication system supporting the use case, post-conditions enabled by the use case, identified potential requirements, and description of the physical environment, including propagation aspects, range, and mobility.
“The concept of remote surgery with support of THz communications comes with the promise of allowing people to be treated at anytime and anywhere, so that medical interventions could be done through the use of medical robots remotely controlled by a surgeon (away from the physical location where the actual surgery is performed),” according to the ETSI report.
Figure 1: Use case mapping to application areas
Here’s the full list of 6G use cases in the ETSI report:
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remote surgery
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in-airplane or train cabin entertainment
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cooperative mobile robots
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hazardous material work
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remote education
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fixed point to point wireless applications
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mobile wireless X-haul transport
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wireless data centres
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interactive immersive XR
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mission critical XR
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real-time industrial control
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simultaneous imaging, mapping, and localization
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commissioning of industrial plants
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grand events with ultra-high throughput
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ultra-high throughput for indoor users
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intra-device communications
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local area collaboration for fixed or low mobility applications
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local area collaboration for vehicular applications
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predictive maintenance and diagnostics
The 75-page report also offers a lengthy look at the kinds of technologies that might be involved in operating 6G networks, including AI, advanced MIMO, Reflective Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) and edge computing.
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The second Report ETSI GR THz 002 identifies frequency bands of interest in the sub-THz and THz range, describes the current regulatory situation and identifies the incumbent services to be considered for coexistence studies.
Figure 2: Frequency ranges within the THz band with different regulatory status
The frequency range 100 GHz – 10 THz is referred to as the ‘THz range’. The corresponding wavelengths are from 0,03 mm to 3 mm. Below this range, the mm-wave and microwave frequency ranges are found, already heavily utilized for communications and non-communications applications. Above 10 THz the near- and mid-infrared spectrum starts.
The interest for higher frequency bands increases with the increasing demand for higher bandwidths and lower latencies to serve critical applications. This is most pronounced in the research towards 6G technologies, which are expected to be ready for early deployments around 2030. The frequency ranges from 100 GHz and upwards is already utilized for non‑communications purposes, and therefore there is a need to understand the regulatory landscape and identify the most interesting frequency bands for THz communications.
“Between 100 GHz and 275 GHz, 8 bands with sufficient contiguous bandwidths are allocated to fixed and mobile services on a co-primary basis,” according to the report. “Above 275 GHz, interesting bands have been identified for THz communications purposes based on a combination of regulatory status and favourable propagation conditions.”
To be clear, most 5G vendors don’t expect 6G to run primarily in those terahertz spectrum bands. Companies like Ericsson and Nokia have said 6G will mainly run in the so-called “centimetric” spectrum bands that sit between 7GHz and 20GHz
Webinar:
Another way of discovering more about those two deliverables will be webinar scheduled for 11 April 2024, 15h CEST:
https://www.etsi.org/events/upcoming-events/2338-webinar-use-cases-and-spectrum-key-starting-points-for-terahertz-standards.
About ETSI:
ETSI provides members with an open and inclusive environment to support the development, ratification and testing of globally applicable standards for ICT systems and services across all sectors of industry and society. We are a non-profit body, with more than 900 member organizations worldwide, drawn from 64 countries and five continents. The members comprise a diversified pool of large and small private companies, research entities, academia, government, and public organizations. ETSI is officially recognized by the EU as a European Standards Organization (ESO). For more information, please visit https://www.etsi.org/
References:
https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gr/THz/001_099/001/01.01.01_60/gr_THz001v010101p.pdf
https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gr/THz/001_099/002/01.01.01_60/gr_THz002v010101p.pdf
https://www.lightreading.com/6g/etsi-s-new-6g-report-dives-into-thz-use-cases
mmWave Coalition on the need for very high frequency spectrum; DSA on dynamic spectrum sharing in response to NSF RFI
New ITU report in progress: Technical feasibility of IMT in bands above 100 GHz (92 GHz and 400 GHz)
ITU-R Report in Progress: Use of IMT (likely 5G and 6G) above 100 GHz (even >800 GHz)
Keysight and partners make UK’s first 100 Gbps “6G” Sub-THz connection
ETSI Integrated Sensing and Communications ISG targets 6G
ETSI NFV evolution, containers, kubernetes, and cloud-native virtualization initiatives
ETSI Experiential Networked Intelligence – Release 2 Explained
Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) Market, Applications and ETSI MEC Standard-Part I
ETSI MEC Standard Explained – Part II
FCC Draft Net Neutrality Order reclassifies broadband access; leaves 5G network slicing unresolved
Introduction:
The FCC will take a series of steps to reestablish the commission’s net neutrality framework and reclassify broadband internet access service (BIAS) as a Communications Act Title II telecom service in a 434 page declaratory ruling and order which doesn’t resolve the issue of network slicing as a paid priority 5G service.
A draft of the items to be considered during the agency’s April meeting, released Thursday, would establish “broad” and “tailored” forbearance for ISPs. “Access to broadband Internet is now an unquestionable necessity. We also exercise broad forbearance for broadband providers as part of the Title II reclassification. Since the Commission’s abdication of authority over broadband in 2017, there has been no federal oversight over this vital service. This item would reestablish the Commission’s authority to protect consumers and safeguard the fair and open Internet, which protects free expression, encourages competition and innovation, and is critical to public safety and national security.”
Network Slicing:
The draft doesn’t make a final determination on how network slicing should be treated under the rules. Network slicing, which requires a 5G SA core network, enables 5G network operators to create multiple virtual networks on top of a shared network. How slicing should be treated has been hotly contested.
“To the extent network slicing falls outside of BIAS, we will closely monitor these uses to evaluate if they are providing the functional equivalent of BIAS, being used to evade our open Internet rules, or otherwise undermining investment, innovation, competition, or end-user benefits in the Internet ecosystem,” the draft said.
“The record reflects that the potential use cases for network slicing are still under development” and that carriers “are in the early stages of adopting the technique, with some moving more quickly than others. Given the nascent nature of network slicing, we conclude that it is not appropriate at this time to make a categorical determination regarding all network slicing and the services delivered through the use of network slicing.”
Yet the document also says it agrees with NCTA “that we ‘should not allow network slicing to be used to evade [the] Open Internet rules.’”
“The FCC declined to do what either side wanted” on slicing, New Street’s Blair Levin stated in a note to investors. “While this was not the clear, decisive win the wireless providers may have hoped for, we don’t believe this or a future FCC is likely to crack down on the primary uses of network slicing, which we understand to be network management techniques that better match wireless services to specific needs in ways that increase spectrum utilization.”
“The text left me rather confused more than reassured,” Digital Progress Institute President Joel Thayer said Friday. The commission seems interested in addressing slicing case by case, he said: “This does not bode well for consumer-facing uses of slicing as that tech starts to develop.”
One implication is the FCC might crack down on slicing if the agency sees it as a form of paid prioritization of network traffic, said Jonathan Cannon, R Street Institute policy counsel-technology and innovation and former aide to FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington.
The report and order would: “Reinstate straightforward, clear rules that prohibit blocking, throttling, or engaging in paid or affiliated prioritization arrangements, and adopt certain enhancements to the transparency rule.”
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The new FCC order would adopt “conduct-based rules” in the commission’s net neutrality framework, establishing “bright-line rules to prohibit blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization” by ISPs. An accompanying draft report and order would also reinstate a general conduct standard and establish a “multi-faceted enforcement framework.”
The draft declaratory ruling would officially reclassify broadband as a Title II service, saying the step would allow the commission to “more effectively safeguard the open internet” and establish a nationwide framework. The draft would largely adopt the commission’s 2015 rules on forbearance, making clear that the record “does not convincingly show that imposing universal service contribution requirements on BIAS is necessary at this time.”
The commission in the draft defended reclassification as a national security matter, noting it has previously taken action under Title II to address national security threats against voice services. “The nation’s communications networks are critical infrastructure, and therefore too important to leave entirely to market forces that may sometimes, but not always, align with necessary national security measures,” the item said.
The draft declaratory ruling also addresses the impact of reclassification on the commission’s universal service goals under section 254 of the Communications Act. Reclassification “will put the commission on the firmest legal ground to promote the universal service goals of section 254 by enabling the commission and states to designate BIAS-only providers” as eligible telecom carriers, the draft said, adding that BIAS-only providers would be allowed to participate in the high-cost and Lifeline programs.
The draft elaborates on the importance of reclassifying broadband to the agency’s authorities under Section 214 of the Communications Act, another issue raised by industry (see 2403070040). Reclassification “enhances the Commission’s ability to protect the nation’s communications networks from entities that pose threats to national security and law enforcement.”
“We find that reclassification will significantly bolster the Commission’s ability to carry out its statutory responsibilities to safeguard national security and law enforcement,” the draft said: “There can be no question about the importance to our national security of maintaining the integrity of our critical infrastructure, including communications networks.” It noted that Congress created the FCC “for the purpose of the national defense.”
The agency dismissed arguments that reclassification isn’t justified for national security purposes: “The nation’s communications networks are critical infrastructure, and therefore too important to leave entirely to market forces that may sometimes, but not always, align with necessary national security measures.” Arguments about potential costs “are unpersuasive given that, at this point, they represent only speculation about hypothetical costs and burdens.”
A draft order on reconsideration included with Thursday’s item said the net neutrality order would resolve four outstanding petitions for reconsideration filed against the FCC’s 2020 net neutrality remand order by Incompas, California’s Santa Clara County, Public Knowledge, and jointly several public interest groups including Common Cause. “As a procedural matter, we find that we have effectively provided the relief sought by each of the Petitions through a combination of the 2023 Open Internet NPRM and today’s actions,” the draft order said. “In light of the Commission’s actions today, we grant in large part and otherwise dismiss as moot” all four petitions for reconsideration. “We agree with the petitioners that the Commission’s analysis in the [Restoring Internet Freedom] Order and RIF Remand Order was insufficient in addressing the public safety, pole attachment, and Lifeline-related repercussions of classifying BIAS as a Title I service,” the draft said.
House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Communications Subcommittee ranking member Doris Matsui, D-Calif., praised Rosenworcel “for moving to finalize rules that reflect reality: broadband internet service is critical infrastructure and an indispensable part of American life, and it must be treated that way.” The FCC’s move for Title II reclassification shows the commission is “recognizing this reality and asserting its rightful authority over broadband providers in order to protect this vital service and the hundreds of millions who rely on it each day,” Pallone and Matsui said. The two lawmakers “have confidence that a court reviewing this action will uphold it, just as courts have done in the past.” Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., also lauded the proposal Thursday after earlier urging Rosenworcel to prevent loopholes in the rules.
The House Commerce GOP majority was tight-lipped after the draft’s release Thursday. Republican members tweeted Wednesday that the net neutrality proposal showed the commission “continues pushing Biden’s Broadband Takeover by imposing unnecessary heavy-handed regulations.”
References:
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-401676A1.pdf
https://communicationsdaily.com/reference/2404040064?BC=bc_661167bc293cd
https://communicationsdaily.com/article/view?search_id=847526&id=1928175
BT Group, Ericsson and Qualcomm demo network slicing on 5G SA core network in UK
ABI Research: 5G Network Slicing Market Slows; T-Mobile says “it’s time to unleash Network Slicing”
Ericsson, Intel and Microsoft demo 5G network slicing on a Windows laptop in Sweden
Is 5G network slicing dead before arrival? Replaced by private 5G?
5G Network Slicing Tutorial + Ericsson releases 5G RAN slicing software
Network Slicing and 5G: Why it’s important, ITU-T SG 13 work, related IEEE ComSoc paper abstracts/overviews
LightCounting: Optical Ethernet Transceiver sales will increase by 40% in 2024
LightCounting expected sales of Ethernet optical transceivers to decline by 5-10% in 2023, but surging demand from Google and Nvidia kept the market growing, albeit at single digits.
Sales of Optical Ethernet transceivers declined in 2019 as a result of lower spending by the Cloud companies, which now dominate demand for those parts. Cloud companies reduced their spending again in the end of 2022 and the market outlook was dire in early 2023. Yet, one year later the market has bounced back.
The market research firm has sharply increased their forecast for sales of 400G/800G transceivers and now expect: 40% growth in 2024, more than 20% in 2025 and double digit growth in 2026-2027, as illustrated in the figure below.
Source: LightCounting
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The growth will not continue indefinitely. Any slowdown in purchases of optics by Nvidia or Cloud companies can reverse the market dynamics. Timing of such a decline is unpredictable. All we know, it will happen at some point. Our model suggests a soft landing with single digit growth rates in 2028-2029, but it is more likely that we will see another sharp drop followed by a recovery, conforming to the rocky history of the past 15 years.
Fears of an economic recession have subsided, but they continue to weigh on spending of telecom operators, which see no revenue growth. Yet, we will not know for sure if a recession is coming until it actually starts and it will take another half a year after that for the economists to formally declare it. By that time, we will be busy discussing the timing of a recovery.
What remains certain is that optics are critical for data centers and for the rest of the global networking infrastructure. Recent progress in generative AI makes the future even more exciting. Keep this in mind, while navigating the markets volatility as shown in the above graph.
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About LightCounting:
The market research firm was established in 2004 with an objective of providing in-depth coverage of market and technologies for high speed optoelectronic interfaces employed in communications. By now, the company employs a team of industry experts and offers comprehensive coverage of optical communications supply chain.
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References:
https://www.lightcounting.com/report/march-2024-ethernet-optics-287
https://www.lightcounting.com/report/march-2024-quarterly-market-update-288
Highlights of LightCounting’s December 2023 Quarterly Market Update on Optical Networking
LightCounting: Sales of Optical Transceivers will decline in 2023
LightCounting: Optical components market to hit $20 billion by 2027+ Ethernet Switch ASIC Market Booms
ITU Journal: NexGen Computer Communications & Networks
These solutions can include network optimization, effective data management, cognitive computing, block-chain solutions, and unconventional hardware and software design and implementation.
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Network optimization:This can involve using techniques such as traffic engineering, load balancing, and caching to improve the performance of networks.
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Effective data management:This can involve using techniques such as data compression, data encryption, and data analytics to improve the efficiency and security of data storage and transmission.
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Cognitive computing:This can involve using techniques such as machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve the ability of networks to learn from data and make decisions autonomously.
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Block-chain solutions:This can involve using techniques such as distributed ledgers and smart contracts to improve the security and transparency of networks.
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Unconventional hardware and software design and implementation:This can involve using techniques such as open source software, software-defined networking, and network function virtualization to improve the flexibility and scalability of networks.
| Issue 1 – Editorial Volume 5 (2024), Issue 1 Enhancing user experience in home networks with machine learning-based classification Adaptive HELLO protocol for vehicular networks On the extraction of RF fingerprints from LSTM hidden-state values for robust open-set detection Unsupervised representation learning for BGP anomaly detection using graph auto-encoders A framework for automating environmental vulnerability analysis of network services Automated Wi-Fi intrusion detection tool on 802.11 networks Optimizing IoT security via TPM integration: An energy efficiency case study for node authentication |
Huawei is back – net profits more than doubled in 2023!
China’s Huawei Technologies said its net profit more than doubled last year, marking a stunning comeback for the company years after U.S. export controls cut it off from advanced technology.
The tech giant on Friday said profit rose to 87 billion yuan, or $12 billion, a rise of more than 140% from the same period a year ago. It is the largest jump in profit for the company since it started reporting comparable figures in 2006. Revenue rose 10% to $99 billion.
It’s Huawei’s highest revenue number, and its first year of topline growth, in four years. Operating cash flow of RMB69.8 billion ($9.7 billion), up fourfold from 2022 and also the highest in four years.
In a statement, Huawei downplayed the figures, with current rotating chairman Ken Hu describing them as “in line with forecast.”
It’s a long way from the imposition of U.S. technology transfer sanctions five years ago, when Huawei executives acknowledged the company was fighting for its survival.
Huawei said growth was driven by higher sales in its consumer electronics and cloud computing offerings.
Last September, Huawei surprised U.S. authorities by releasing a new smartphone, the Mate 60 Pro, with 5G-like capabilities, running on its homegrown chips. Five years after the U.S. restricted sales of the most powerful chips and the Android operating system to Huawei, the telecom equipment and mobile phone maker has shown strong resilience.
Huawei’s core ICT infrastructure unit, comprising the legacy carrier network business and enterprise network sales, remains the biggest source of revenue. It grew 2.3% to RMB362 billion ($50.1 billion), while the cloud business was another of the big growth drivers, gaining 22%.
The company has diversified into new business lines such as cloud computing, enterprise software and automobile systems and retooled its products.
Huawei co-built Aito, one of China’s most popular EVs. There’s also the newly formed smart auto components units business, which more than doubled revenue to RMB4.7 billion ($650 million).
“We’ve been through a lot over the past few years. But through one challenge after another, we’ve managed to grow,” said Ken Hu, Huawei’s rotating chairman.
Last year nearly 70% of Huawei’s revenue came from China as its overseas presence shrunk. Five years ago, China formed about 60% of its revenue, while the rest came from Europe and emerging markets. Huawei doesn’t break out U.S. sales figures.
Revenue from its telecommunication equipment and enterprise technology business grew 2%. Sales at its consumer business group, encompassing products such as smartphones, laptops and smart wearables, rose 17%.
Huawei was the world’s largest providers of telecom equipment and among the biggest smartphone makers globally, but U.S. sanctions beginning in 2019 crushed its smartphone business and forced it to spin off its budget Honor handset brand.
U.S. authorities also blocked American carriers from buying from the Chinese company and asked allies not to use Huawei’s telecom equipment, calling the company a national security threat. Huawei said then that restricting it from doing business in the U.S. wouldn’t improve national security and would limit the country’s 5G development.
But the past few months have indicated a reversal of Huawei’s fortunes. Since the launch of the Mate 60 series, Huawei has begun to chip away at Apple’s high-end smartphone market share in China.
On Friday, Huawei said the Mate 60 Series and HarmonyOS, its own operating system for mobile phones and other smart devices, had “received wide acclaim.” The company said its consumer unit grew by “overcoming major technical barriers and diving deep into the industry’s most challenging issues.”
Huawei didn’t provide sales numbers for the phones. Ming-Chi Kuo, a supply chain analyst at TF International Securities, last September predicted that Huawei would likely deliver at least 12 million Mate 60 handsets by August.
The company said cloud computing revenue rose 22% last year. Huawei, China’s second-largest cloud computing provider, had outpaced the growth of market leader Alibaba Group and smaller rival Tencent Holdings. Last year, the company launched new cloud-based artificial-intelligence offerings for business use that are now deployed in banks and mines.
Analysts say Huawei is also set to benefit from China’s localization policy, as the company expands its offerings in areas such as semiconductors, where Beijing is seeking more self-sufficiency.
Huawei has managed to deliver AI chips that developers say match the capabilities of some of Nvidia’s top processors. Nvidia named Huawei as one of its competitors in its annual report in February.
In 2023, Huawei spent $23 billion on research and development, about 23% of its total revenue.
References:
https://www.lightreading.com/5g/huawei-profit-soars-as-it-returns-to-growth
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