Associations have their work cut out for them meeting incoming freshman GOP lawmakers now that the House has shifted to Republican control with Tuesday’s midterm elections, trade-group executives agreed. They said their groups will make a push with new lawmakers about their issues largely by using current lobbyists experienced working with both parties on Capitol Hill. The midterms represent an opportunity for the groups to tell new committee chairmen and committee members early on about their issues, association executives said.

Legislators aren’t likely to take up broadband regulations in the lame-duck session, said former Rep. Albert Wynn, who was a member of the House Commerce Committee and now lobbies for Dickstein Shapiro. Lots of work has been put into the net neutrality proposal by Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., Wynn said Thursday on a USTelecom webinar. Hearings may be held early next year, he said. Wynn said members who supported net neutrality generally didn’t fare well in Tuesday’s election. Cybersecurity could be the subject of legislative action, but not much can be done in the lame-duck session, he said. Congress may take up the issue in the first half of next year, said David Hoppe, president of Quinn Gillespie & Associates. Tuesday’s election sent a clear message -- jobs and the economy, said Alan Roth, a senior executive vice president with USTelecom. Hopefully the FCC gets the message too and focuses on improving investment environment in stead of regulations over Internet, he said. It’s necessary to maintain a bipartisan approach for the industry, he said, saying establishing bipartisan consensus is key to move important telecom issues forward.

The wave of incoming freshmen legislators in the House had little early help from the telecom, media and technology industries, an analysis of campaign finance data shows. Among non-incumbent candidates who won seats in the House or Senate, only a handful received more than $5,000 in direct contributions from the large political action committees associated with those industries by October. We looked at contributions made to candidates by PACs including those of USTelecom, NCTA, NAB, CTIA, Verizon, AT&T, CWA, Qwest, Comcast, Disney Employees, Clear Channel, Google and Microsoft, based on Federal Elections Commission data compiled by CQ Moneyline. Contributions made within the final eight weeks of the campaign aren’t yet reflected in the available data.

Nov. 1-3 Broadband Expo, Gaylord Texan Resort, Dallas -- www.thebroadbandexpo.com

Hoping to refine its testing before tackling a special-access overhaul, the FCC issued a wide-ranging public notice seeking information on non-ILEC and “out of region” ILEC facilities. An FCC official told us the commission wants to come up with the right measuring stick for gauging special-access concerns. The notice, published late Thursday, promises that a separate data request is coming.

Congress is unlikely to make changes soon to retransmission consent rules despite stepped up lobbying by pay-TV companies trying to make the most of an ongoing dispute between Cablevision and News Corp., according to broadcast, cable and Capitol Hill officials. A bill on FCC handling of such disputes that Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., has said he'll introduce soon (CD Oct 20 p1) seems unlikely to pass this Congress, they said. Legislators focused on getting re-elected means there’s less time to pay attention now to the blackout of three Fox TV stations owned by News Corp. on Cablevision systems in the New York area, a cable executive acknowledged.

The FCC has shipped 1,000 “white boxes” to academics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Georgia Tech, in an effort to test broadband speeds around the country, the commission said Thursday. The boxes are designed to be installed in consumers’ homes to track hourly data on broadband speed. By month-end, 10,000 of the boxes are scheduled to have gone out, Chief Walter Johnston of the commission’s Electromagnetic Compatibility Division told an agency meeting on broadband.

Representatives of wireline and cable companies met with FCC Office of Engineering and Technology officials to ask how much of a part fixed-wireless and satellite-broadband providers will play in the FCC’s hardware-based fixed-broadband performance testing program, run by SamKnows. The company representatives “expressed our joint position that fixed wireless and satellite broadband providers should be included in the SamKnows testing program,” said an ex parte letter. “We observed that exclusion of whole segments of the fixed broadband provider community could undermine the ‘proof of concept’ that SamKnows was tasked to achieve.” Attending the meeting were representatives of USTelecom, Windstream, CenturyLink, NCTA, Qwest and Frontier.

Lawmakers should incentivize U.S. telework adoption and dismantle barriers, said broadband proponents. Three teleworking supporters touted the economic and domestic benefits of alternative working environments Thursday at a USTelecom event in Washington. Among the projected benefits were reduced city traffic, lower carbon emissions, reduced dependence on foreign oil, increased personal freedom for employees and increased potential for those with disabilities.

The FCC gave interested parties until Thursday to comment on two separate appeals, each of which challenge the commission’s decision in the Corr Wireless Order (CD Sept 7 p1). Both SouthernLINC and Allied Wireless Communications asked the commission to review the Corr decision. Oppositions to SouthernLINC’s petition were due Tuesday but oppositions on Allied’s petition aren’t due until Friday. The commission changed the comment deadline for both petitions to Thursday.