Telecom and cable representatives are expected to be a part of a Trump campaign transition team meeting in Washington Thursday, a communications industry official told us. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has rarely weighed in on tech and telecom policy, and unlike his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, he has released no agenda on the topics. The Trump for America transition team scheduled an hourlong “information session” promising “an inside look on the work underway on planning for the transition” at the Baker Hostetler law firm’s offices and featuring transition team leader Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey, said an invite to the tech sector. Transition team member Andrew Bremberg, a former aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and a policy director for the Republican National Committee platform committee this year, sent the invite. Likely attendees include CTA, the Internet Association, MPAA, Information Technology Industry Council and CTIA, plus people representing individual companies, said officials. Officials said this is the first big formal outreach from the GOP national election forces since a summer RNC meeting with tech and telecom stakeholders (see 1606060035). One suspected this Thursday meeting will be as large as in that earlier meeting, which featured at least 75 or so people. An official confirmed that room size range of about 75-100 people for the earlier RNC meeting and said that during it, attendees all offered their key policy goals. The Trump campaign didn’t confirm the event, nor did spokespeople for certain trade organizations in these areas.

A series of votes at Thursday's FCC meeting on personnel matters became protest votes for the two GOP commissioners, who voted no on the six items. The personnel actions themselves weren't made public, but one FCC source told us the "no" votes had to do with personnel issues traditionally being handled differently and not on a meeting agenda. The other three commissioners voted "yes" on the six. At a Senate Commerce Committee oversight hearing earlier this month (see 1609150045), Commissioner Mike O'Rielly complained about FCC process reform, referring to a reform instituted days earlier by Chairman Tom Wheeler on disposal of personnel matters. "The Chairman contemplated, decided and declared a new procedure for addressing personnel changes that he believes are taking too long," O'Rielly said, in testimony made available online. "The Commission will now vote on these items at its monthly Open Meetings, without discussion or comment."

The FCC is still looking at various examples of zero-rated services, Chairman Tom Wheeler said in the news conference after Thursday’s commissioner meeting. “As I've said all along, we are carefully examining what has been developing in zero rating,” Wheeler said. “It's interesting to see that new things continually come on, it's interesting to see that old things continue to evolve and we're trying to make sure that we understand the dynamics of all of those.” Wheeler said the FCC often gets criticized for moving too fast or too slow in an area. “Things move at the pace that is appropriate,” he said. Commissioners at last month’s CTIA show said they weren't surprised the probe has taken many months (see 1609090029). “We're trying to make sure that we understand everything that's going on,” Wheeler said. He also said the FCC continues to consult with the FTC on proposed ISP privacy rules, though he didn’t go further than in past statements, saying he addressed the issue during a September Senate Commerce Committee hearing (see 1609150058). Wheeler noted during that hearing he said he had been in contact with the FTC “within the last 24 hours.” He said he still plans to complete orders on ISP privacy and business data services "by the end of the year," but "as soon as possible."

Seventy-three percent of U.S. broadband households have at least one entertainment device connected to the internet, an increase of 11 percentage points over early 2015, said a Parks Associates report Thursday. Smart TVs are on track to surpass connected gaming consoles as the No. 1 streaming device in the home, though purchases are largely part of the standard replacement cycle as new TVs “are likely to be smart,” said analyst Barbara Kraus. Some 32 percent of broadband households with at least one connected streaming device use a gaming console as the primary means of streaming media, a 27 percentage point drop in two years, while smart TVs are the streaming device of choice in 28 percent of households, she said. “New owners of smart TVs will try out the smart functionality in the new TV and continue to use it if it meets expectations.” Smart TV ownership in the U.S. grew to 45 percent of broadband households in Q1, said Parks. A quarter of broadband households are using a tablet to access online video content and 20 percent do so using a smartphone, it said. Nearly 90 million streaming media players will be sold globally in 2020, said Parks, with most growth coming from the Asia-Pacific region for the stick form factor.

The FCC's current landlord is attempting to deprive the General Services Administration of its discretion to choose the commission's next headquarters, said developer Trammell Crow in a partially redacted filing in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Current landlord Parcel 49C, an affiliate of Republic Properties, argued there was a conflict of interest (see 1609010075) in the GSA's selection of a new FCC HQ in the Trammell Crow owned-Sentinel Square, near North Capitol and L streets NE in Washington's NoMa district. CBRE, which GSA contracted to broker the FCC's search for a new home, owns Trammell Crow, the eventual winning bidder. CBRE also represented Parcel 49C. This wasn't a conflict because the information and employees involved were kept separate at the intertwined companies, Trammell Crow said. “Procurement information was properly contained within a firewall at CBRE,” said the filing. ”No procurement information had been shared between CBRE and Trammel Crow Company.” Parcel 49C's allegations amount to an “unsupported conspiracy theory,” Trammell Crow said. The real estate developer also took issue with Parcel 49C's arguments that the FCC's requests for its new building -- which include an 11-1/2-foot ceiling on the first floor and a backup power source -- are “unduly restrictive of competition.” Parcel 49C “would prefer the FCC remain in its antiquated building as is, in order to increase its profits,” Trammell Crow said. “Binding precedent, however, instructs that this Court will defer to an agency’s determination of its own needs.” Parcel 49C didn't comment Wednesday.

Sprint and Verizon pushed business data service regulatory proposals, but cable companies, telcos and unions objected to them, in filings posted Tuesday and Wednesday in docket 16-143. Commissioners may consider BDS action at their Oct. 27 meeting, the tentative agenda for which is due for release Oct. 6. Sprint said the BDS joint proposals of Incompas and Verizon were the "best path" to ensure "non-competitive market conditions" don't hurt business customers and incumbent rivals, including wireless carriers rolling out 5G mobile broadband networks that need more backhaul. AT&T is engaged in an "eleventh-hour effort" to block changes and preserve its "lucrative dominance," said a Sprint filing, which included an extensive overview of "the overwhelming evidence in support" of the Incompas/Verizon framework and separate "backstop remedies." Verizon disputed Comcast arguments the cable company was a BDS "private carrier" (not a “common carrier”) and should be subject to different rules. Verizon said it backed exempting post-2006 Ethernet providers from proposed benchmark regulation. But NCTA, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox and Mediacom said the record showed BDS was "intensely competitive" and provided "no basis" for Incompas/Verizon regulatory proposals. In a meeting with staffers, they urged the FCC to adopt NCTA's proposal to regulate only where companies have market power. CenturyLink said Incompas/Verizon proposals would cut rates in BDS offerings below 50 Mbps and extend them to Ethernet services in noncompetitive areas through benchmark regulation affecting most price-cap ILECs except Verizon, which would see "little, if any, impact." The agency can justify "no more than minimal" reductions to DS1 and DS3 rates based on "X-factor" productivity analysis, said CenturyLink, which said regulation undercut 5G. Frontier Communications and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers urged the FCC not to impose "draconian" ILEC rate cuts that would threaten union jobs in favor of competitors that blocked organized labor and provided lower pay and benefits. Dorsey Hager, executive secretary of the Columbus/Central Ohio Building & Construction Trades Council, asked the FCC to revise proposals that are based on "data that is out of date." Tech Knowledge Director Fred Campbell disagreed that Incompas/Verizon proposals were a compromise, given their increasingly common wireless-oriented interests. Verizon would reap the benefits of lower BDS rates out of region but wouldn't have to lower its own Ethernet rates, he said in a commentary.

NCTA's annual INTX trade show is no more, President Michael Powell said in a blog post Wednesday. "We are now exploring new and better ways to tell our story, to gather our community, to advance our growth and present our vision of the future," Powell said. "We believe large trade show floors, dotted with exhibit booths and stilted schedules have become an anachronism." INTX 2017 was to have been in Washington, D.C. That show won't be held, an NCTA spokesman told us. The move follows NCTA's rebranding earlier this month (see 1609190017).

A California nonprofit that advocates for cellphone radiation warnings alleged a conflict of interest by a federal judge overseeing a dispute between CTIA and the city of Berkeley, California. CTIA is challenging in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals the city’s cellphone warning ordinance for RF emissions (see 1609130045). In a news release Tuesday, the California Brain Tumor Association urged Judge Michelle Friedland to recuse herself from the three-judge panel hearing the case. The nonprofit alleged Friedland’s husband, Daniel Kelly, works as an engineer at Tarana Wireless, which designs 5G wireless equipment and is funded by AT&T and T-Mobile USA parent Deutsche Telekom. The U.S. carriers are members of CTIA. Berkeley City Council Member Maxwell Anderson said: “It is appalling to learn that a judge in this case may have possible wireless industry conflicts of interest. It is especially important this be investigated given Judge Friedland’s husband is a key employee of a firm linked to several major players in the trillion dollar wireless sector.” The nonprofit’s head, Ellen Marks, said she hasn’t submitted the allegations to the court. CTIA declined to comment. The court didn’t comment.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., would have preferred some additional policy items discussed during the first presidential debate Monday between Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, he told reporters Tuesday. “A lot of issues didn’t get covered last night that are pretty big issues,” Thune said. “Issues that have been talked about in the campaign -- immigration, of course, was one. I think there were some opportunities for Trump on the cyber issue that he didn’t probably follow through on enough. If they’re talking about the economy and national security and the courts and things like that, I think those are things the American people care a lot about. And I don’t think there was probably as fulsome a discussion as there could have been.” Trump agrees with Clinton that “we should be better than anybody else” on cybersecurity, he said Monday. “The security aspect of cyber is very, very tough. And maybe it’s hardly do-able. But I will say, we are not doing the job we should be doing, but that’s true throughout our whole governmental society.” Clinton, who has a detailed tech and telecom agenda, also touted her infrastructure plans, which she wants to kick-start at the beginning of her administration, and cited jobs in technology. Thune initially predicted Trump would come up with his own tech agenda by the time of the debates (see 1606290073).

The FCC and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will do a nationwide emergency alert system (EAS) test Wednesday at 2:20 p.m. EDT, FEMA said in a reminder news release (see 1609130060). The test will be similar to more commonplace EAS tests -- “this is a national test of the Emergency Alert System. This is only a test” -- except the message will indicate the nationwide scope, FEMA said.