There is no push notification service listed in the services list. Presumably WNS is a core Windows component.
Regular Microsoft-Windows-PushNotifications-Platform
event log entries are being generated. After some research (e.g. blog about WNS) it appears that these "services" are related to Windows App Store application and live tiles updates. No article I've found mentions disabling WNS.
It is possible to completely disable WNS (e.g. using the registry)?
Group Policy
articles on MSDN: getadmx.com/?Category=Windows_8.1_2012R2 (Windows 8.1) and getadmx.com/?Category=Windows_10_2016 (Windows 10). In particular, theTurn off notifications network usage
article looks interesting. I've implemented this policy and will report back.