In an "innovation-led economy," innovation must “flourish,” but with AI "the protection of people” is critical, Microsoft Vice Chairman-President Brad Smith told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce State of American Business 2024 webinar Thursday. “We need to ensure that humans remain in control of this technology,” Smith said during a Q&A with Harold Kim, the Chamber’s executive vice president-chief legal officer. “We need to have safety and security standards,” he said. Smith found “fascinating” that the Chamber’s report on AI said that unless the government enacts regulation, “we’re likely to have market failure,” he said. “That is not a sentence that most people would expect to see in the executive summary” of a Chamber report, “and yet it is precisely right.” He added, “Most healthy markets for everyday products that can impact people’s safety do have a degree of safety regulation in place,” he said. “The key is to strike the right balance.” At Microsoft, “we’re very much focused on doing this on a global basis,” he said. “We’re interacting with governments in, easily, a few dozen countries at this point as each country is considering this.” Smith didn't mention the New York Times’ AI copyright infringement lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI, announced Dec. 27 (see 2312270044), and Kim didn’t ask him about it.

The FCC took its first official steps Thursday to wind down the affordable connectivity program. A Wireline Bureau order in docket 21-450 gives providers guidance on notifying enrolled households about the impact of the program ending, advertising and outreach, claims submissions and "participation during a possible partially funded month." The bureau said it will announce ACP's final date about 60 days prior to the end of the program's last fully funded month. "To facilitate the efficient wind-down of the ACP, we strongly encourage providers to submit any remaining outstanding claims for reimbursement or revisions prior to February 1," the order said. The bureau will freeze new enrollments Feb. 8, which it said will help it "more accurately project funding exhaustion by increasing certainty in program commitments." ACP "connected millions upon millions of households to broadband services," FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said. "[D]isconnecting millions of families from their jobs, schools, markets, and information is not the solution," she added. Commissioner Anna Gomez said she was "dismayed that the commission finds itself with no choice but to initiate the wind down process," but "I remain hopeful that this program will continue to be funded."

Dish Network transferred some spectrum licenses, including AWS-4, H Block, CBRS, 12 GHz, 24 GHz, 28 GHz, 37 GHz, 30 GHz and 47 GHz, to a sister EchoStar subsidiary, EchoStar Wireless, while retaining ownership of other licenses including 600 MHz, 700 MHz, 3.45 GHz and AWS-3, parent EchoStar said Wednesday. EchoStar said the move "optimized strategic and financing flexibility." Spectrum and space consultant Tim Farrar posted on X that the moved spectrum "is mostly peripheral or low in value, and perhaps therefore more readily saleable to raise cash."

EchoStar could face challenges meeting its financial commitments during the next two to three years, S&P Global said Friday as it assigned the company a CCC+ credit rating following the closing of the deal creating EchoStar/Dish Network (see 2401020003). EchoStar must raise substantial funds in the coming years for its capital spending, offsetting wireless losses and debt maturities, S&P said. Dish will likely need to raise about $1.5 billion this year to address $2 billion in debt that matures in November, and another $2.5 billion in 2025 "before a massive maturity wall approaches in 2026." While Dish needs success in its 5G wireless business to lower its cost of capital and service its debt, that success "is highly uncertain," it said. S&P predicted that Dish's 5G ambitions in the postpaid market will struggle as it tries to capture business in a mature wireless market with large, established competitors. It added that cable is already competing in the more price-sensitive segment of the wireless market through bundles of mobile and broadband service. Hurting Dish is a lack of meaningful contracts with large enterprise clients and a strategic partner that could help drive revenue growth. S&P said 5G private network adoption is progressing slowly, and the addressable market will be much smaller in 2025 than Dish management projected.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr hired former senior counsel to the chief of the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Arpan Sura as his legal adviser. “Arpan is a true lawyer’s lawyer as well as an experienced advisor on a range of policy issues,” Carr said in a news release Thursday. In addition, he noted Sura's experience in “wireless, satellite, consumer protection, media, technology, and litigation issues,” Carr said. Before joining the FCC, Sura represented telecommunications and tech clients for Hogan Lovells. Sura has degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and William & Mary Law School, the release said.

The EchoStar/Dish Network transaction consummated over the weekend, (see 2401020003) "buys Dish some time… but not much," MoffettNathanson wrote Thursday. A Dish bankruptcy remains likely as its direct broadcast satellite, streaming video and Boost wireless mobile virtual network operator businesses are losing subscribers and the latter two are losing money, it noted. Dish's 5G network plans would make it the fourth entrant in a mature market where carriers don't always earn their cost of capital, it said. While Dish has "immensely valuable" spectrum assets, the potential buyers all have balance sheet issues and there are prohibitions on spectrum sales to any of the major wireless carriers before 2027, it said. "And even then, it isn’t entirely clear that the FCC and DOJ would conclude that spectrum sales to any of those three buyers are in the public interest," it added.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel touted the agency's 2023 achievements in a Friday note, saying the commission will "be remembered for ... the policies we advanced to reflect a world where high-speed connectivity is no longer a luxury but a necessity." Rosenworcel noted nearly 7 million households enrolled in the affordable connectivity program this year, bringing the total of enrolled households to more than 22 million. "But our progress here cannot slow down," she wrote, and "we need help from Congress to keep this groundbreaking program going." In her year-end review, Rosenworcel also cited the commission's work on broadband mapping, closing the homework gap and space innovation. "I am especially excited about our proposal to harness the power of satellites to enhance mobile phone operations in areas where there is no terrestrial mobile service," she said: "This connectivity can help facilitate life-saving rescues in remote locations and the innovative opportunities it presents will only grow." The FCC's initiatives on AI also "illustrate how the commission may be using some new tactics," Rosenworcel said, "but we remain focused on long-standing priorities like consumer protection and maximizing the opportunities we have with scarce spectrum resources."

It’s a “national security imperative” that government officials can “engage with social media platforms about foreign malign influence targeting their users,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said in a U.S. Supreme Court amicus brief Tuesday (docket 23-411). His brief supports government petitioners in Murthy v. Missouri who seek to vacate the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ social media injunction against officials from the White House and four federal agencies. The injunction is stayed, pending completion of the SCOTUS review (see 2310230003). If the injunction gains effect, it would bar officials from the White House, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the FBI and the surgeon general's office from coercing or significantly encouraging the social media platforms to moderate their content. An injunction “would prevent or limit the government’s ability to communicate with social media companies,” and would leave the U.S. “vulnerable to attack,” said the brief. Foreign malign influence campaigns have grown in number, scope and sophistication since 2016, it added. Any progress gained through improved threat sharing processes “may be entirely lost if the injunction is not lifted,” the brief said. Even while stayed, the injunction has reduced the intelligence community’s threat-sharing capacity, it said.

All 56 states and territories submitted their initial proposals to NTIA for the broadband, equity, access and deployment program, the agency said Thursday. Proposals were due by Wednesday (see 2312210009). An entity may begin its BEAD challenge process once NTIA approves its volume 1 proposal, the agency said.

The FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee will meet at FCC headquarters Jan. 30. It's the group’s first meeting since September (see 2309070035) and the third of its current term, according to a Wednesday notice in the Federal Register. The meeting starts at 9 a.m.