Telecom Legislation Prompts New Lobbying Registrations
Verizon this year has hired 5 firms to lobby Congress, according to the latest filings with the Secy. of the Senate reflecting a flurry of activity over DTV and telecom legislation. Verizon hired the lobbyists on issues such as telecom and broadband, spectrum allocation and regulatory parity in broadband deployment, the documents show. “As issues change you want to give yourself flexibility to be effective,” said a Verizon spokesman.
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Nextel, being taken over by Sprint, hired 3 firms to represent it on the merger, as well as spectrum and interoperability issues and general telecom matters. Two of the registrants -- Amy Mehlman of Mehlman Capitol Strategies and Joel Johnson of the Glover Park Group -- have worked with Nextel several years and filed new registrations only because they moved to new companies in 2005, said a Nextel spokesman.
“Nextel, like all of the national and regional wireless carriers, wants to monitor federal legislation… for telecom issues in general, and the wireless industry specifically,” Taylor said. William Harris & Assoc., the only new firm Nextel hired, listed Nextel’s merger with Sprint as a specific lobbying issue. Bringing in lobbyists to address congressional concerns is typical, Mehlman said: “Anybody going through a merger like Sprint and Nextel wants to make members of Congress are sure what type of business they're in.”
While some companies hire firms for specific issues such as mergers or indecency legislation, others bring on board experts that have key contacts on Capitol Hill on committees that oversee telecom. Shuffling firms is commonplace, said one lobbyist, and often personal contacts lead to a firm landing new clients. For instance, the former Bracewell Patterson group added new clients including News Corp. when Rudolph Giuliani joined its practice with an office in New York. Most companies that can afford it hire multiple firms with specialized expertise.
Trade associations hiring multiple firms included USTelecom (USTA) and MPAA. USTelecom hired Alexander Strategy Group to represent it on telecom issues, Quinn Gillespie for telecom update, and Lundquist, Nethercutt & Griles for telecom, USF and IP legislation. MPAA hired American Continental Group for telecom and IP issues and the Nickles Group for IP.
Other trade associations with new registrations included CEA, Alexander Strategy Group for telecom; NCTA, the Hobbs Group for telecom; Assn. of Public TV Stations for appropriations; CTIA, Ryan, Philips, Utrecht & MacKinnon for telecom regulation and wireless issues; Independent Telephone & Telecom Alliance, representing themselves on telecom legislation, USF and IP; and RIAA, Jenkins Hill Group for copyright law, indecency issues and high-tech issues.
Firms that hired 2 or 3 lobbying groups included SBC, AT&T, BellSouth, Comcast, Time Warner, Vonage, Yahoo, Sprint, Qualcomm, News Corp., DirecTV and Motorola -- all concerned with telecom, DTV, broadband, IP and merger issues in ongoing legislation.