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.”

Dish Network might use some or all the $2.5 billion it hopes to raise in a convertible note offering in the broadcast incentive auction. The company said in a news release Wednesday that proceeds from its debt offering announced the previous day "are intended to be used for strategic transactions, which may include wireless and spectrum-related strategic transactions, and for other general corporate purposes." In a note to investors Tuesday, Citigroup analyst Jason Bazinet said Dish's fundraising may point to its thinking it can buy spectrum in the 600 MHz auction below the spectrum's intrinsic value, with the longer-term goal of selling the company to an existing wireless company.

The USF carrier contribution factor could fall in Q4 from 17.9 percent to 16.9 percent of interstate and international telecom revenue, said industry consultant Billy Jack Gregg in an email update Tuesday. He said the Universal Service Administrative Co. (USAC) projected USF demand for Q4 would be $2.08 billion, down $100 million from Q3. Demand in three USF mechanisms -- supporting Lifeline, high-cost and rural-healthcare telecom service -- is expected to increase, but demand for school and library fund (SLF) E-rate discounts is expected to decrease by $215 million in Q4 to $403 million, he said. "This dramatic reduction in demand for the SLF is driven by the FCC’s June 8, 2016, authorization to USAC to use $1.9 billion of unused funds from prior years to offset 2016 SLF demand, and USAC’s projection that only $3.6 billion will be needed to satisfy overall 2016 SLF demand, $300 million less than the overall cap of $3.9 billion." If projected Q4 long-distance telecom revenue holds steady, the contribution factor will drop to 16.9 percent, he said, but if the projected revenue continues its trend lower, the contribution factor likely will be higher than that. USAC's Q4 revenue projection is expected in late August, he said.

At least some telecom and media industry officials donated to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's campaign, the latest Federal Election Commission filings show. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton captured attention from many leading company executives and establishment figures in the last year, attention that the Trump campaign still largely lacks (see 1606270078). Brandon Spencer, chief financial officer of Klas Telecom, donated $2,700 to Trump June 26, as did Alliant Tech CEO Richard Crawford June 23 and American Cyber President Gary Winkler May 27. SatCom Direct founder and CEO Jim Jensen donated $1,000 June 29, and OptiNet CEO Mitchell Wade gave $1,000 June 23. Pulse Electronics CEO Mark Twaalfhoven gave $1,000 in May and $2,000 in March, the same month that CenturyLink-owned Cognilytics Chief Data Officer Andrew Clyne donated $1,400 and M2M Spectrum Networks Chairwoman and owner Carole Downs gave $1,000. But some Republicans denounced Trump’s campaign. “I urge all Republicans to reject Donald Trump this November,” Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman said in a Facebook post Tuesday, announcing her backing for Clinton despite calling herself a “proud Republican.” The Trump campaign touted an uptick in its fundraising Wednesday.

CenturyLink and Frontier Communications voiced concern to FCC leadership that the agency's proposed framework for business data services wouldn't reflect how carriers negotiate in the BDS market, including for wireless backhaul. "Market conditions have shifted considerably since the FCC’s 2013 data set, which was not accurate and which is now three years old," said a joint filing posted Wednesday on company officials' meetings with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, Commissioners Michael O'Rielly and Ajit Pai, and various staffers. "We also explained that price regulation will distort and deter competition in the BDS market; prices set too low will preclude competitors from entering the market." They said wireline networks are critical to helping wireless providers meet "exponential" wireless data growth. "In 2015, for the first time, more wireless data traffic was offloaded onto a wired network than data carried over wireless infrastructure and that trend is increasing," the filing said. "The current BDS rulemaking would reduce, not increase, incentives to invest in much-needed wireline fiber-optic infrastructure that provides the foundation for offloading wireless data. We reiterated that it is important that any regime the FCC adopts does not deter investment, especially in rural areas." Also making recent filings in docket 16-143 were Comcast, FairPoint Communications, Incompas, Level 3, USTelecom, Windstream and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D).

NTIA said it’s beginning a new multistakeholder process via the Internet Policy Task Force on the cybersecurity upgradability of the IoT. The NTIA-facilitated process, which is to begin with an initial meeting in early fall, will focus on developing ways to improve consumers’ understanding of cybersecurity upgrades to IoT products, the agency said Tuesday. NTIA chose to proceed with the multistakeholder process in response to comments in both its recent IoT request for comment (see 1606020059) and the IPTF’s 2015 request for comment on cybersecurity issues (see 1506010055) that “identified security upgradability as an issue that required attention and coordination,” said Deputy Assistant Commerce Secretary-Communications and Information Angela Simpson in a blog post. She said that the process’ goal will be to “promote transparency in how patches or upgrades to IoT devices and applications are deployed. Potential outcomes could include a set of common, shared terms or definitions that could be used to standardize descriptions of security upgradability or a set of tools to better communicate security upgradability.” There are instances in the IoT space where there has been “limited consideration for supporting future security patches, even though many devices will eventually need them,” Simpson said. “Enabling a thriving market for devices that support security upgrades requires common definitions so consumers know what they are getting.” No common definitions on IoT cybersecurity upgrades currently exist “and manufacturers can struggle to effectively communicate to consumers the security features of their devices,” she said.

The FCC Connect2Health Task Force unveiled a broadband health mapping tool to enable and inform "more efficient, data-driven decision making." The online tool allows users to ask and answer broadband and health questions at the local level to provide "critical data that can help drive broadband health policies and connected health solutions," said an FCC release Tuesday. Users can generate customized maps displaying broadband access, adoption and speed data combined with health information in urban and rural areas, which can be used to identify gaps and opportunities, it said. “The unique insights revealed by this mapping platform can be utilized by businesses and policymakers to effect change and innovation,” said Chairman Tom Wheeler. The release said: "The picture of health is vastly different in connected communities vs. digitally isolated communities. This holds true across access to care, quality of care and health outcome metrics. For example, obesity prevalence is 25 percent higher and diabetes prevalence is 35 percent higher in these counties (i.e., where 60 percent of households lack access to broadband and over 60 percent lack basic Internet connections at home.)" There's "a significant gap between rural and urban counties," it added. "What we have found in too many places, are skyrocketing rates of chronic disease, crippling access by way of care, and a lack of broadband-enabled health resources that could make a real difference," said Commissioner Mignon Clyburn in prepared remarks on the mapping tool at the Microsoft Innovation and Policy Center. "These are the so-called 'double burden' counties: communities where high health needs and poor connectivity intersect. The Priority 100 and Rural 100 lists we release today identify those counties by name, with the hope this will catalyze action and provide a roadmap for private investment and coordinated public support to follow. Many of these priority counties are concentrated in the South and Midwest, where they average 8% fixed broadband access, have a 34% higher diabetes prevalence and 24% higher obesity prevalence than the national average."

Integration of drones in the national airspace, their innovative commercial and government uses, the role of R&D in drone policymaking, and privacy and safety concerns will be topics at a White House workshop Tuesday, 9-11 a.m. Hosted by the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the live-streamed event will feature remarks by Michael Huerta, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith and Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, who co-leads the FAA's Drone Advisory Council (see 1605040017). Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International CEO Brian Wynne will moderate a panel on the technical progress of drones at the event, which will convene a number of other academic, federal and industry experts. Following the White House event, a live flight demo of a drone will be at the Newseum at 1:30 p.m. In June, the FAA finalized new rules for the commercial use of drones weighing less than 55 pounds (see 1606210025).