SoftBank is putting $1 billion into satellite operator OneWeb, with the money to go toward OneWeb setting up a high-volume satellite production facility on Kennedy Space Center land in Florida, the Japanese conglomerate said in a news release Monday. The facility is expected to employ 3,000 within four years, with OneWeb starting production there in 2018, it said. Other investors have put in an additional $200 million, SoftBank said. SoftBank Group Director Ronald Fisher will join OneWeb's board, it said. SoftBank is the majority owner of wireless carrier Sprint. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said the development follows his meeting with President-elect Donald Trump, during which Son said he “shared my commitment to investing and creating jobs” in the U.S. (see 1612060073). “This is the first step in that commitment,” Son said.
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.
The Technology Policy Institute issued 10 recommendations it says can help the Trump administration better promote innovation and economic growth. In the 18-page policy paper, TPI President Scott Wallsten and President Emeritus Thomas Lenard said the incoming administration should roll back the FCC net neutrality and broadband reclassification order because they largely deal with hypothetical concerns rather than fix current problems and should use antitrust enforcement to address competition issues. Trump's team has signaled a distaste for those regulations and will likely push to have the order repealed (see 1611230014). The Thursday paper said processes to put spectrum into the hands of the private sector should be streamlined and business models such as those "based on price and non-price differentiation without requiring regulatory approval" should be allowed. Wallsten and Lenard seek more incentives to improve cybersecurity and ensuring strong intellectual property rights policies.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler confirmed he met with Trump transition team members. Responding to a reporter's question, Wheeler said he had two meetings, one with the FCC transition team of President-elect Donald Trump and a separate one with Jeffrey Eisenach, a member of the team. "They were good meetings," said Wheeler, at his Thursday news conference after his last FCC commissioners' meeting (see 1612150034). "It’s not my role to talk about what happened in those meetings. If they want to talk about that, that's great," he said. The Trump transition and its FCC "landing team" members didn't comment. Wheeler said the commission designated two staffers as transition contacts and set up an office for Trump team members. "I made clear to them that if there were any issues that came up along the way, that I was the guy to call first," he said. Trump team members also met this week with Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, an aide told us. Aides to other commissioners didn't comment.
The 2017 economic report released by the Obama administration Thursday included language touting its record on tech and telecom issues. “The Administration has worked to ensure that the technological infrastructure is in place, and the rules of the road are set, so that all Americans can benefit from technology,” said the 559-page report. “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided funding to deploy or upgrade more than 114,000 miles of new broadband infrastructure, consistent with the President’s goal of enhancing consumer welfare, civic participation, education, entrepreneurial activity, and economic growth through greater access to broadband. The Recovery Act financed additional broadband projects totaling $2.9 billion, bringing high-speed Internet access to 260,000 more rural households, 17,500 businesses, and 1,900 community facilities.” It cited administration actions on freeing up spectrum and President Barack Obama’s backing for the FCC net neutrality rules. Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jason Furman led a White House blog post about the report.
A bill that would ban clauses that stifle negative online consumer reviews of a company's product or service (HR-5111) and another bill (S-3183) prohibiting the mass online purchase of events tickets, which are resold at higher prices, were signed into law Wednesday by President Barack Obama. The Consumer Review Fairness Act now prohibits gag or non-disparagement clauses within a company's terms of service, which have been used to silence bad reviews of goods, services or conduct (see 1606210061 and 1511040028). Consumers Union Senior Policy Counsel George Slover said in a statement "businesses should not be able to manipulate consumer feedback so that only glowing reviews see the light of day. If a business can't or won't deliver, it should have to answer in the marketplace." The other new law, the Better Online Ticket Sales (Bots) Act, bans use of software that circumvents a ticketing system's control measures and scoops up massive amounts of an events' tickets before the public has the chance to buy them. Ticket sellers and other supporters of the law said the tickets are then resold at exorbitant prices (see 1612010018).
One Senate Commerce Committee Democrat said he doesn’t plan to leave. “I was humbled to be considered for the Secretary of Energy position,” said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who met with President-elect Donald Trump in New York Monday, in a statement Tuesday. “Right now, I believe that I can best serve my state of West Virginia in the United States Senate.”
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was scheduled to meet Tuesday with President-elect Donald Trump, said transition spokesman Jason Miller in a conference call with reporters. He provided no details, but said Gates had "fantastic things" to say about Trump during a CNBC interview. In that Tuesday interview, Gates said Trump could provide a "very upbeat message" in the education, energy and healthcare sectors, just as President John F. Kennedy did with the U.S. space program. Trump's "administration is going to organize things, get rid of regulatory barriers, and have American leadership through innovation be one of the things that he gets behind," said Gates in the interview. Trump is planning to meet with several CEOs and executives of major technology companies on Wednesday 2 p.m. in New York (see 1612120026). Miller didn't provide details about the agenda nor a list of attendees, but said Trump wants to foster a business climate including access to capital and a tax structure that spurs innovation. Also, 19 music organizations, including the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and RIAA, sent a letter to Trump, asking him to enforce IP laws to promote creativity and technology. "Search engines, user upload content platforms, hosting companies, and domain name registrars and registries should follow others' example to effectively stop theft and assure fair payment," said the letter. Encryption, free speech, mass surveillance and net neutrality are areas that tech leaders should stand firm on when they meet with Trump Wednesday, said the Electronic Frontier Foundation in a Tuesday blog post. EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn and analyst Karen Gullo wrote that tech leaders should tell Trump's transition team that it's "technically impossible" to engineer a back door for law enforcement to people's communications and devices without risking everyone's security. The two said Trump shouldn't get away with his attacks on free speech and internet freedom. "Any speech-limiting practices and policies must be narrowly applied, transparent, and easily correctable, or they will inevitably be targets for gaming and harassment," they wrote. Cohn and Gullo said they're disturbed by the nominations of Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., for attorney general and Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., for CIA director, considering their support to restore a mass phone surveillance program under the Patriot Act. "The program eviscerated the privacy rights of hundreds of millions of innocent Americans with no proof of a countervailing gain," said the post. Tech leaders also need to back the FCC open internet order and rules to stop companies from using people's personal data for profit, they said.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., asked President-elect Donald Trump to address broadband in his infrastructure investment goals next year. “Pursuing policies that generate broadband expansion and access can and should play a key role,” said Capito, who spearheaded the Senate Broadband Caucus, in a letter, released Monday and dated Friday. “These policies include: reducing barriers to investment in infrastructure, streamlining the regulatory environment for wireless providers, encouraging public-private partnerships, and ensuring accountability on behalf of the taxpayer for federally funded projects.” Trump transition spokesman Jason Miller told reporters during a daily transition briefing Monday that “broadband is obviously very important.” He expects that’s one policy area Trump will address after being sworn in as president in January. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., a member of the Commerce Committee who has focused on broadband investment, met with Trump in New York Monday.
President-elect Donald Trump will nominate John Kelly, who commanded the U.S. Southern Command, to lead the Department of Homeland Security, Trump said Monday. Kelly “is the right person” for “improving coordination between our intelligence and law enforcement agencies,” Trump said in a statement. Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., called the choice “outstanding.” House Homeland Security Committee ranking member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in a statement he's “troubled by [Kelly's] alarmist statements in the past on the security of our borders.” Trump said he plans to appoint Goldman Sachs President-Chief Operating Officer Gary Cohn as director of the National Economic Council. "As my top economic adviser, Gary Cohn is going to put his talents as a highly successful businessman to work for the American people," Trump said.