Comcast opened free access to 6,800 Xfinity Wi-Fi hot spots in Washington to the 1 million people expected to attend Friday’s presidential inauguration, the company said in a Tuesday news release. Even those who aren't customers will be able to connect for no charge until Jan. 26, it said. Wireless carriers announced temporary and permanent capacity upgrades to meet high network demand expected over the weekend, including for the inauguration and demonstrations (see 1701060023).
Gannett will live-stream Friday's inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump in virtual reality and with 360-degree coverage, the company said in a media release Friday. The media company said the streaming will involve multiple VR cameras around the Capitol, National Mall and along the inaugural parade route. The video stream will be in VR headsets via USA Today's YouTube app and in 360-degree format via the USA Today YouTube channel for desktop and mobile users, Gannett said, saying coverage will begin at 9:30 a.m. EST.
The Wireless ISP Association sent President-elect Donald Trump a letter Friday asking him to not ignore the problems faced by its members. WISPA told Trump that modernizing the Communications Act “to better reflect 21st Century communications technologies and business realities” is important, as is “eliminating FCC regulations that disproportionately burden small broadband providers with compliance costs and enforcement risks, which chill investment, deter innovation, and raise costs to consumers.” WISPs also need more access to spectrum, their association said. “Given our cost-efficient technologies and business models, as well as our demonstrated ability to bring broadband to neglected markets without subsidies, we respectfully ask you to foster a policy environment that enables us to serve more American consumers in the most cost-effective manner possible.”
The federal government can reduce its operational costs by more than $1 trillion over the next decade by adopting cognitive computing systems and cloud technologies to improve efficiency, the Technology CEO Council said Thursday in a report aimed at the transition team for President-elect Donald Trump. TCC's paper aims to demonstrate that agencies' adoption of current technologies will improve government cybersecurity, efficiency and responsiveness to citizens. “We are living through a period of profound change, where cognitive computing systems and the efficiency of the cloud are transforming entire industries,” said IBM CEO Ginni Rometty in a TCC news release. “Advanced information technologies are providing dramatic competitive advantages to businesses in virtually every industry imaginable,” said TCC Chairman Mark Durcan, CEO of Micron Technology. “We see clear and proven implementation paths where our federal government can take advantage of these same efficiencies. Modernizing our infrastructure is critical to our future as a nation.”
AT&T Chairman Randall Stephenson met Thursday with President-elect Donald Trump but didn't talk about the company's planned $108.7 billion buy of Time Warner, the telco said in a statement. "Rather, as the country’s leading investor of capital for each of the last five years, the conversation focused on how AT&T can work with the Trump administration to increase investment in the U.S., stimulate job creation in America, and make American companies more competitive globally." The Trump transition team didn't comment on the specifics of the meeting but said such meetings between Trump and business leaders generally have been about job creation and regulatory barriers to growth and expansion. Trump has said he opposes the deal on media consolidation grounds (see 1610220002).
T-Mobile detailed plans to boost wireless capacity during the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. Wireless carriers last week said they have prepared for many months to fortify networks in Washington in anticipation of massive data demand expected next Friday (see 1701050059). T-Mobile will boost its network capacity in the National Mall and surrounding areas by nearly 1,000 percent through permanent upgrades, Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray said in a Thursday news release. T-Mobile did so by deploying LTE Advanced technologies including 4x4 MIMO and 256 quadrature amplitude modulation, he said. The company said it added more LTE spectrum over the past year, deployed three-carrier aggregation, added multi-beam antennas and doubled backhaul on many sites. The carrier will make temporary capacity boosts in the area by rolling out cells on wheels several days before the inauguration. T-Mobile and other carriers have said the temporary upgrades will remain all weekend, including for protests (see 1701060023).
President-elect Donald Trump publicly acknowledged he now believes the Russian government orchestrated the hacking of IT systems of the Democratic National Committee and the campaign of former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. U.S. intelligence agencies said Friday Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the hacks of Democratic and Republican campaigns (see 1701060060). Trump earlier criticized the intelligence agencies’ assessment (see 1701050062). "I think it was Russia,” Trump said during a Wednesday news conference. “I think we also get hacked by other countries and other people.” Trump suggested the focus on the hacks was disproportionate with previous cyber incidents, citing the reaction to the Office of Personnel Management data breaches revealed in 2015. “When we lost 22 million names and everything else that was hacked recently, they didn’t make a big deal out of that,” Trump said. “That was something that was extraordinary. That was probably China. We had much hacking going on.” In fact, the hack made headlines nationwide then. Trump also said the DNC’s cybersecurity practices were “totally open to be hacked." Senate Intelligence Committee Republicans this week pointed to a possible disparity between the relative vulnerability of DNC and Republican National Committee servers to cyberattacks. Senate Intelligence Democrats disputed those assertions (see 1701100076). Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson said during his confirmation hearing Wednesday he would need to examine existing and proposed additional sanctions against Russia aimed at responding to the hacks before deciding how to act. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized Tillerson’s answer, saying on the Senate floor that to “duck the question and refuse to commit to continuing these sanctions is tantamount to sweeping international laws under the rug.” Secretary of Homeland Security nominee John Kelly said during his confirmation hearing Tuesday (see 1701100081) he accepted the intelligence agencies’ report on the Russia hacks “with high confidence.” Kelly told the Senate Homeland Security Committee he's still reviewing a Department of Homeland Security-backed proposal to reorganize the department’s National Protection and Programs Directorate as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Agency. Kelly said he backs “evolving” DHS’ authorities to allow a faster response to cyberthreats.
Univision “had a productive meeting with President-elect Donald Trump” (see 1701090069), it said in a news release Monday. The meeting concerned “issues facing Hispanic and multicultural communities in America,” it said. Univision and Trump were seen as having a contentious relationship during the presidential election. “Our Univision News team will continue to cover the Trump administration with the rigor that we have brought to the coverage of every administration that preceded it,” the media company said.
Alibaba Group Chairman Jack Ma met Monday with President-elect Donald Trump to discuss “how Alibaba can create 1 million U.S. jobs by enabling 1 million U.S. small businesses to sell goods into the China and the Asian marketplace,” a Trump spokesman said. Trump’s meeting with Ma came less than a month after the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative redesignated Alibaba’s Taobao online shopping arm as a “notorious” market for IP infringement. Taobao faced ongoing criticism for not doing enough to combat the sales of counterfeit products (see 1612210068). Trump’s presidential campaign pledged to force China to stop IP theft (see 1606290080).
President-elect Donald Trump met Monday with Univision Communications CEO Randy Falco and Isaac Lee, the company’s chief-news, entertainment and digital. Trump spokesman Sean Spicer mentioned the planned meeting during a journalists' call that morning, not elaborating on the details of its agenda. A Univision spokeswoman didn’t comment on the meeting.