Lobbying Expenditures Revealed For Some U.S. Wireless Carriers

August 29, 2007

The website FierceWireless is out with analysis and graphs of lobbyist-related spending by some leading U.S. wireless carriers in the first half of 2007.

Here are some of the findings, as interpreted by FierceWireless editor Brian Dolan:

Verizon Wireless spent $2.04 million on 700 MHz reallocation and public safety, the prevention of fraudulent access to phone records, the Google/YouTube lawsuit, digital 411, interoperability, emerging markets telecommunications funding, analog cutoff, patent reform, e911 and more.

Sprint Nextel's $1.56 million in lobbying went to such issues FCC deregulation of special access, spectrum issues and interoperability, antidumping law, electronic surveillance and special access proceedings before the International Trade Commission (ITC).

T-Mobile USA dug into their pockets for $912,000 on lobbying during H1 2007. Issues included extending the Internet tax moratorium, wireless tax moratorium, FCC oversight issues, Universal Service Reform, Same Number Act, the Broadcom vs. Qualcomm dispute, the presidential veto of the ITC ban on Qualcomm's chipsets and more.

Alltel spent $70,000 on lobbying, on such matters as restricting states from imposing a new discriminatory tax on cell phone services, requiring the FCC to issue a final order on the use of white space spectrum, preventing caller ID spoofing, requiring that VoIP providers have equal access to e911 as mobile carriers and more.

ATT's lobbying expense form is not yet available. Apparently, it is "in the mail."

Yes, really.