There were 326.5 million mobile voice subscriptions in the U.S. as of June 2015, along with 68.1 million traditional retail switched access lines and 56.8 million interconnected wireline VoIP subscribers, said an FCC voice services report listed in Monday's Daily Digest. From June 2012 to June 2015, the annual compound growth rate was 3 percent for mobile voice subscriptions and 13 percent for interconnected wireline VoIP subscriptions, while retail switched access lines decreased 13 percent annually, said the report, which derived the figures from FCC Form 477 submissions of voice providers. Of 125 million wireline retail voice connections (both traditional and VoIP), 69 million (55 percent) were residential and 56 million (45 percent) were business, while ILECs had 66.9 million connections and non-ILECs had 58 million, it said.

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump “will issue a temporary moratorium on new agency regulations” upon taking office, he said Monday in Detroit. Regulatory overhaul was a major feature of his speech on the economy. “This will give our American companies the certainty they need to reinvest in our community, get cash off of the sidelines, start hiring for new jobs, and expanding businesses,” Trump said. “I will also immediately cancel all illegal and overreaching executive orders. Next, I will ask each and every federal agency to prepare a list of all of the regulations they impose on Americans which are not necessary, do not improve public safety, and which needlessly kill jobs. Those regulations will be eliminated.” Last month in accepting the nomination at the Republican National Convention, Trump outlined hostility to what he believes is excessive regulation (see 1607220052). His campaign issued a news release promising Trump would “remove bureaucrats and replace them with experts who know how to create jobs” and “initiate targeted review for regulations that inhibit hiring.” Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., lauded the speech and said “to reinvigorate our economy, we must reduce redundant programs, roll back Washington’s regulatory regime.” Aides to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton issued a memo Monday saying a Trump presidency would hurt the economy. Another Clinton campaign news release touted some business stakeholders including investor Mark Cuban, Bloomberg CEO Michael Bloomberg, Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos questioning Trump’s business savvy.

“Timing of availability” of ATSC 3.0 receivers will depend primarily on how quickly the FCC moves to authorize use of 3.0's physical transmission layer, America’s Public TV Stations, CTA and NAB told the FCC in Aug. 2 meetings with members of the Media Bureau, Office of Engineering and Technology and International Bureau, NAB said in a joint ex parte filing Thursday in docket 16-142. The associations want the FCC to launch a rulemaking on the transition by Oct. 1, they told the commission in reply comments in late June (see 1606280068). Consumer equipment manufacturers are unlikely to begin building ATSC 3.0 receivers into their products until the FCC “allows the voluntary use of the standard and there is something for those receivers to receive,” the ex parte filing said. Attendees included Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake, CTA Senior Vice President-Research and Standards Brian Markwalter, APTS CEO Patrick Butler and NAB officials including General Counsel Rick Kaplan. ATSC 3.0 receiver costs "will fall over time as the standard becomes more widely used and consumer demand spurs broader manufacture of Next Generation TV receivers,” said NAB. CTIA’s concerns are “unfounded” about the potential for ATSC 3.0 to interfere with wireless operations in the 600 MHz band, the groups told the commission. “CTIA supports the broadcast industry’s efforts to evolve, as long as it does not delay or disrupt the use of new 600 MHz licenses purchased at auction,” Scott Bergmann, vice president-regulatory affairs, emailed us Monday through a spokeswoman. CTIA used the identical language in its June 27 reply comments to summarize its position on ATSC 3.0. Further testing of the interference potential between wireless LTE and ATSC 3.0 “is unlikely to provide useful results,” APTS, CTA and NAB told the FCC. “There is no technical reason to believe that ATSC 3.0 creates a higher risk of potential inter-service interference” than the existing ATSC 1.0 service, they said.

The FCC released information on upcoming meetings of the four informal working groups (IWGs) under the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee. First will be IWG-2: Terrestrial Services, which has a call scheduled for Friday starting at 2 p.m. EDT, said a Friday notice. The committee is preparing preliminary U.S. positions for the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission meeting starting in late November (see 1608020053).

CTIA, Incompas, NCTA and USTelecom backed a March 2015 petition for reconsideration asking the FCC to vacate a policy statement on the forfeiture methodology for violations of rules governing payment to certain payment programs. "Because the Policy Statement is written in terms that bind the agency in applicable monetary forfeiture proceedings, the Administrative Procedure Act required notice and comment prior to issuance of the Policy Statement," said a filing Friday by a CTIA counsel on a meeting with Enforcement Bureau staffers. It noted there was no docket because the commission didn't put the petition out for comment. The groups had said in 2015 the policy statement created “draconian” treble damages for amounts owed to USF and other funds (see 1503310052).

Four ex-chairmen want the FCC to extend the cable procurement rule to all commission-covered industries, said a letter to Chairman Tom Wheeler filed by the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council Friday. Ex-Chairmen Julius Genachowski, Bill Kennard, Reed Hundt and Michael Copps endorse the MMTC-backed proposal, the letter said. “On the national stage, the extension of equal procurement opportunity to industries constituting one-sixth of the economy would be an enormous civil rights achievement during your Chairmanship.” The affected industries have “shown statesmanship” by not objecting to the proposal, the letter said. MMTC has been seeking to have a draft quadrennial review media ownership order extend a provision on cable operators making deals with minority-owned companies to all FCC-covered industries. In its current form, the draft order would extend the rules only to broadcasters (see 1607140069).

Comments are due Sept. 21 for the 18th FCC video competition report, with replies due Oct. 24, the agency said in a public notice Friday in docket 16-247. The report is to focus on the 2015 video market and look at video distributors in three categories -- TV stations, multichannel video programming distributors and online video distributors.

A top lobbyist for Incompas is shifting some aspects of his role for the association. Alan Hill, who was Incompas' senior vice president-government relations and strategic business development, will continue his legislative activities for Incompas under the banner of the J.A. Hill Group firm, which began lobbying on behalf of Incompas and BT Americas effective July 1. Those disclosure forms were posted earlier this week (see 1608010026). Hill, who has been with Incompas since 2011 and was previously legislative director for ex-Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., told us the effect should be seamless in terms of lobbying, and he began considering the shift after his wife, Joy Ditto, became president of the Utilities Telecom Council in April. His lobbying for Incompas will focus on broadband data services, privacy, video reform and general competition issues, the registration form said. He registered a website for the firm May 5 but told us it’s still not up and running yet. Hill “is now representing INCOMPAS as an independent consultant,” a group spokesman told us. “He remains the main point of contact for legislative matters for INCOMPAS.” Incompas removed Hill from its staffers listing on its website this week.

The Professional Services Council (PSC) asked the FCC to revise language in its recent declaratory ruling (see 1607060013) providing an exception to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act for federal and federal contractor debt collection. The FCC, apparently by mistake, used language that would mean less relief than intended, PSC said. The council took issue with one phrase, the finding that the TCPA prohibitions don't include calls by "the federal government or agents acting within the scope of their agency under common-law principles of agency." The problem is “government contractors are routinely not considered to be agents of the government, and in many instances government contracts contain express language to this effect,” PSC said in the petition for reconsideration in docket 02-278. The FCC instead should provide relief for government contractors “acting on behalf of the federal government, in accordance with their contract's terms and the government's directives, without regard to whether a common-law agency relationship exists,” PSC said. Consumer groups, led by the National Consumer Law Center, asked for changes in the other direction, saying the ruling provides too much relief for government debt collectors (see 1607260039). The PSC represents companies in the government technology and professional services industry.

The FCC won't review Verizon’s proposed buy of Yahoo (see 1607250016), FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in the news conference after commissioners' meeting Thursday. “There aren’t any licenses that transfer.” The deal demonstrates the importance of the agency’s ISP privacy proceeding “and the questions that were raised in there as to what’s the appropriate use of network-generated information,” he said. Wheeler didn’t say when the FCC would consider a final privacy order. Some characterize the proposed rules as having a “chilling” effect on industry, Wheeler said: “Well, it certainly didn’t have an impact on this deal, it would appear.”