Wireless carriers pledged to provide boosted wireless capacity for the entire presidential inauguration weekend, including protests, AccessNow said in a Thursday blog post. The four carriers promised major capacity upgrades in anticipation of massive data demand expected at the Jan. 20 inauguration (see 1701050059). After AccessNow sent a Dec. 21 letter to AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and U.S. Cellular asking them to continue expanded temporary capacity during demonstrations including the Women’s March on Washington, the carriers indicated they would, AccessNow said. “These actions are a welcome, proactive step by mobile carriers to protect their users and mitigate threats to free expression at an important moment in a democracy,” the group wrote. “Our work fighting internet shutdowns has shown that political events like elections and inaugurations are common targets for disruptions and government surveillance, that can lead to the abuse of fundamental rights, like the rights to free expression and peaceful assembly.” AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile spokesmen confirmed Friday that boosts would remain through the weekend. Verizon didn't comment.
More investment in "hybrid infrastructure" -- tying physical structures with technology such as water mains embedded with internet-connected sensors to detect leaks or smart traffic lights to create more efficient transportation -- is "likely to have bigger productivity payoffs than simply pouring more concrete or laying pipe," the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said in a Tuesday report. Written by Peter Singer, a policy adviser at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Washington office, the ITIF report said studies showed "investments in IT-enabled infrastructure can have 60 percent greater productivity impacts than investments in roads alone." The report said a smart infrastructure is one part of an "innovation infrastructure" that President-elect Donald Trump, who emphasized investing in physical infrastructure during his campaign, should adopt. That means expanding public and private R&D investments, advanced technology like exascale computing, scientific infrastructure and advanced manufacturing, it said.
President-elect Donald Trump touted Sprint’s Wednesday announcement that it would bring 5,000 jobs to the U.S., which a carrier spokesman confirmed to us was part of an earlier commitment from parent company SoftBank to bring 50,000 jobs to the U.S. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son met with Trump earlier this month and made that pledge then (see 1612060073). “Yesterday’s announcement was a demonstration of how we are creating the jobs and fulfilling the commitment,” a Sprint spokesman said. “I just got a call by the head people at Sprint, and they’re bringing 5,000 jobs back to the United States, they’re taking them from other countries, they’re bringing them back to the United States,” Trump said Wednesday, not mentioning the earlier pledge. “And Masa and some other people were very much involved in that, so I want to thank them.” Trump was “intimately involved” with making the deal happen, incoming press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters Thursday. “Sprint’s CEO called him yesterday. … Obviously we’ll continue to follow up on this and make sure it happens. But you’re going to see more and more of this. … I think this is just the tip of the iceberg.” A Sprint news release said it “will begin discussions immediately with its business partners, states and cities to determine the right locations in the U.S. to create these jobs” and it “expects to fulfill this commitment by the end of its fiscal year 2017 and will provide additional details when they are available.” The jobs “will support a variety of functions across the organization including its Customer Care and Sales teams,” Sprint said. The carrier issued a statement from CEO Marcelo Claure expressing excitement about working with Trump. The president-elect and Spicer also touted 3,000 jobs they said would be brought to the U.S. by OneWeb, a satellite firm SoftBank invested $1 billion in this month. SoftBank announced the jobs figure in its Dec. 19 release on that investment, saying it’s “expected to create nearly 3,000 new engineering, manufacturing and supporting jobs in the U.S. over the next four years.” There's speculation Sprint may try to merge with T-Mobile under the incoming administration (see 1612090053).
The U.S. Trade Representative “will still obviously be the principal negotiator on trade deals,” transition spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters Wednesday. Spicer will work as the press secretary in the incoming Trump administration. In recent weeks, transition officials have talked about the significance of the role of commerce secretary nominee Wilbur Ross, with one saying Ross would “ultimately direct” the incoming administration’s trade policy (see 1612200017). Expect “a much greater team effort” on trade in the new administration, with Ross and others such as Peter Navarro, an adviser appointed by President-elect Donald Trump as director of trade and industrial policy, playing an “instrumental role” and addressing “an agenda and a policy” in this realm, said Spicer. Trump said Tuesday that Jason Greenblatt will be special representative for international negotiations, but that’s a role that will be “bigger than just trade,” Spicer told reporters Wednesday. Trump hasn't named an nominee for the USTR position.
The recent meeting between President-elect Donald Trump and tech executives (see 1612140060) is hopefully “the beginning of a new chapter” for Trump on telecom policy, said Sara Solow, who advised Trump’s Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton on telecom issues, in an opinion piece published Saturday by Wired. She cited several recommendations for Trump, based on what Clinton proposed over the past year of campaigning. “We should settle for nothing less than universal, high-speed broadband for every household,” said Solow. “To ensure people can get online through free wifi, we should replicate and extend programs like e-rate, which was successful at hooking up public schools and libraries to the internet, to places like train stations, recreation centers, and airports. And the next administration should do what it can through spectrum-allocation policies and public investments to help foster the evolution from 4G to 5G wireless and other next-generation systems.” Trump should embrace the FCC net neutrality rules and not undo them, she said.
President-elect Donald Trump was scheduled to meet with officials involved in cybersecurity and mergers and acquisitions, transition spokespeople told reporters Thursday. One meeting was to involve Tom Bossert, a cyber-risk fellow at the Atlantic Council and president of risk management firm Civil Defense Solutions Consulting. Bossert was an official in the George W. Bush administration, working on homeland security issues and for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Another meeting was to involve Jay Clayton, an attorney with Sullivan & Cromwell focused on M&A. Elsa Murano, a former Texas A&M University president and Agriculture Department official under George W. Bush, is “going to be a candidate for Agriculture,” said transition spokesman Sean Spicer.
A White House report on artificial intelligence "rightly" extols the technology's potential, but also gives "undue credence" to speculation that AI will "exacerbate inequality" and eliminate jobs before acknowledging creation of new ones, said Center for Data Innovation (CDI) Director Daniel Castro in a statement. Tuesday's report (see 1612200056) said the technology could hurt less-educated, lower-skilled workers and recommended several policy changes including more R&D, worker training and education, and a modernized social safety net. "The White House is wrong to suggest that AI will power a productivity explosion so great that it destroys jobs faster than the economy can keep up," said Castro. "That idea vastly overestimates the ways in which AI will be able to replace people -- and it underestimates the extent to which productivity gains create new job opportunities by putting more money into the economy." He said policymakers including the incoming Trump administration should keep the claims in perspective. But Castro said he supports the strategies the White House put forth and said the report correctly says the bulk of new jobs created won't be high-skilled technical jobs like computer scientists but in other sectors where companies benefit from AI. In October, CDI released an AI report and held a discussion on how government regulators and policymakers could help foster the technology (see 1610190027).
President-elect Donald Trump named investor Carl Icahn special adviser on regulatory reform. “He is not only a brilliant negotiator, but also someone who is innately able to predict the future especially having to do with finances and economies,” Trump said in a statement Wednesday. “His help on the strangling regulations that our country is faced with will be invaluable.” Trump prioritized regulatory overhaul throughout his campaign, a focus that many believe could affect the FCC and other agencies’ operations. “Under President [Barack] Obama, America’s business owners have been crippled by over $1 trillion in new regulations and over 750 billion hours dealing with paperwork,” said Icahn, who was a majority stakeholder in XO Communications.
Wilbur Ross, the billionaire investor and likely incoming secretary of commerce in the Donald Trump administration (see 1611300028), “will ultimately direct much of the administration’s trade policy,” Trump transition spokesman Jason Miller told reporters on a call Tuesday. Miller said there’s no talk currently of merging the U.S. Trade Representative with the Commerce Department. But “Mr. Ross will be playing a big role in any trade particulars” and “setting much of the overall direction on this front,” Miller said. The Senate will need to confirm the Ross nomination next year.
Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., was picked for Office of Management and Budget director in the next administration. The member of the House Freedom Caucus is a “loud voice for trying to rein in out of control spending, fighting government waste,” transition spokesman Jason Miller told reporters Monday. President-elect Donald Trump announced Saturday his intent to nominate Mulvaney. “We are nearly $20 trillion in debt, but Mick is a very high-energy leader with deep convictions for how to responsibly manage our nation’s finances and save our country from drowning in red ink,” Trump said. OMB has been at the table for discussion of certain telecom issues, such as debates involving federal spectrum.