The Software & Information Industry Association urged President-elect Donald Trump Wednesday to recommend tech and IP policy legislation that will “promote the availability of data and the development of improved analytics techniques to extract value from information.” SIIA policy recommendations “will be a useful roadmap for policymakers throughout your new Administration, enabling them to promote software and information technology to create broad-based growth, reduce social and economic inequality, and secure America’s global leadership,” President Ken Wasch said in a letter to Trump. SIIA emphasized the need for policies “that promote the use of data and analytics while protecting privacy and data security.” Rules that “protect people from harmful uses of information encourage the trusted disclosure of the information that is the fundamental input into data-driven innovation,” SIIA said. The Trump administration and Congress should “continue and expand efforts at the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to improve the quality of patents and should work with Congress to ensure carefully crafted balances in our copyright laws, which create the flexibility and strong protections necessary for innovation and creativity,” the group said.

More DirecTV workers represented by the Communications Workers of America ratified an agreement between the CWA and AT&T, which now owns DirecTV, said a news release Friday. The accord covers about 1,050 Southeast U.S. workers and puts them under an existing contract in that region, CWA said. It follows similar ratifications by DirecTV field workers in the Midwest and Southwest (see 1611010017).

Inteliquent agreed to an $800 million acquisition by private equity firm GTCR, the acquiree said in a Wednesday news release. Under the deal, Inteliquent -- an interconnection partner for communications providers -- will be merged with Onvoy, a provider of voice, messaging and mobility services. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2017, subject to FCC, state and shareholder OKs and termination of the Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust waiting period. “This industry was ripe for consolidation, and while Inteliquent was a natural consolidator with a favorable balance sheet to do so … GTCR should be able to capture additional synergies out of this combination,” Raymond James analysts wrote investors Thursday. The deal follows Broadcom’s $5.9 billion agreement to buy Brocade (see 1611020050).

Broadcom agreed to buy Brocade in a $5.9 billion takeover of the networking products maker that provides fiber-channel switches, routers and the like and helps automate networks. The acquirer will divest Brocade’s IP Networking business of wireless and campus networking, data center switching and routing, and software networking systems, it said in a Wednesday news release. "We are confident that we will find a great home for Brocade’s valuable IP networking business that will best position that business for its next phase of growth," said Broadcom CEO Hock Tan. Broadcom/Brocade is expected to be completed in the second half of the fiscal year that began Monday "subject to regulatory approvals in various jurisdictions" among other things, the buyer said; it's not conditioned on jettisoning IP Networking. Spokespeople didn't comment on our further queries.

About 1,100 DirecTV workers represented by the Communications Workers of America ratified two agreements between the CWA and AT&T, which now owns DirecTV, said a news release Monday. The accords cover about 200 Midwest employees and about 900 in the Southwest and put those workers under existing contracts in those regions, CWA said.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton had “been a bit ambivalent” about “tweeting her support” for the net neutrality order that the FCC approved Feb. 26, 2015, said her aide Jake Sullivan in an email from Feb. 15 of that year, released by WikiLeaks last week. Consultant Tom Freedman had asked John Podesta, a chief official in Clinton’s election effort, if it would “make sense to say something positive now including about her commitment to an open and accessible web?” pegged to the FCC vote, and Podesta turned to other officials including Sullivan. “But I agree -- it's a good issue to be out front on,” Sullivan told Freedman. “We'll revisit.” Clinton backed the FCC majority's approach, including reclassification of internet services under Title II of the Communications Act, in an interview Feb. 24 of that year (see 1504160034). Among other recent emails released, which U.S. intelligence agencies say are likely sourced to a cyber-hack affiliated with the Russian government, Washington Monthly editor-in-chief Paul Glastris congratulated Podesta “on municipal broadband” in an email dated Feb. 28, 2015, and cited a piece Podesta wrote for the magazine in 2006. “When I read that the FCC had overturned state restrictions on municipal broadband I immediately thought of you,” Glastris wrote. Clinton aide Sara Solow also emailed Podesta about Charter Communications’ acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks when the deal was still pending in January of this year. “I actually thought the business case for their merger was pretty sympathetic,” emailed Solow, mentioning a briefing with Charter and saying the combined company wouldn't serve as large a broadband market as AT&T when combined with DirecTV. “I also found it interesting that there hasnt [sic] been ANY congressional hearing on this,” she added. “Skepticism much lower.” In a follow-up email, she wrote, “See no reason to have a view at this point. Don't think there is any pressure to oppose and make this another example of consolidation; on the other hand no upside in supporting.”

Confusion is hindering growth of home automation and related markets, Futuresource reported, based on a survey of 4,000 people in the U.S., U.K., France and Germany. "That's a serious problem,” said analyst Simon Bryant. Some 21 percent of consumers own a smart appliance, but many classify their smartphone or smart TV as a smart appliance, he said Wednesday. Voice control, led by Amazon’s Alexa-based Echo devices, “could prove to be the catalyst for the entire smart home revolution,” Bryant said, with Apple and Google products adding “significant momentum."

Friday’s distributed denial of service internet attack that knocked out many websites (see 1610210056) spurred calls to action Monday from IoT stakeholders and by members of Congress (see 1610240038). Privacy and security concerns are on the rise among IoT customers, said a Parks Associates news release. Year-end data show 40 percent of U.S. broadband households had a recent privacy or security problem with a connected device, “primarily a virus, spyware, or a company tracking them," said analyst Brad Russell. The IoT creates opportunities and risks, some of which are an obstacle to advancement of technology, said Anthony Grieco, trust strategy officer at National Cyber Security Alliance founding sponsor Cisco, in a news release. Also Monday, the prpl Foundation said it formed the Trust Continuum working group with the goal of establishing “end-to-end trust in embedded devices, critical to the security of IoT.” Trust is a critical element missing from the IoT, said foundation President Art Swift.

IoT gateway shipments are forecast to exceed 64 million units in 2021, ABI Research reported Monday. Home automation and security market components will be well over half of all IoT gateway shipments by then, but mobility, transportation, industrial and infrastructure segments will generate the most revenue, ABI said. Home automation and security rely on gateways for communications between home sensors and cloud services.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruling earlier this month in PHH v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau bolsters the FCC position in a lawsuit challenging retroactive waivers granted to some companies in its 2014 junk fax order, the agency said in a letter Thursday (in Pacer). PHH, cited by plaintiff petitioners in Yaakov of Spring Valley et al. v. FCC (see 1610140004), is dramatically different from the waivers challenge, since by giving the waivers, the commission was excusing liability where regulated parties could have been confused about requirements instead of imposing unexpected liability on regulated parties, it said. The PHH decision said the CFPB structure intruded on presidential Article II powers and thus violated separation of powers, but the FCC waivers don't violate that principle since the agency's ability to waive is own rules for good cause is well established. Counsel for the plaintiffs didn't comment.