T-Mobile Lobbying Spending Rose in Q2; Verizon, Sprint Spent Less
Lobbying spending among some wireless heavyweights is up. CTIA lobbying rose in Q2, to $1.96 million, vs. $1.76 million in last year’s Q2. T-Mobile spent more than $2.1 million in Q2, vs. $1.6 million a year ago. T-Mobile typically has spent aggressively on lobbying, and this is the first quarter in many years that it’s broken the $2 million mark in quarterly lobbying spending. An exception is Q2 2008, when T-Mobile recorded $3.29 million.
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Verizon and Sprint spent much less. Verizon’s lobbying amounted to $1.83 million, down from $3.08 million. Sprint’s fell by more than $170,000 to $577,534. The Competitive Carriers Association reported no change in spending, clocking $150,000 in both quarters, and TracFone Wireless also stayed steady at $270,000. U.S. Cellular spent $10,000 less, to $120,000. Qualcomm spending dropped by more than $1 million: $1.29 million this Q2, $2.51 million last. Cisco spending dropped $70,000 to $460,000.
The lobbying disclosure forms were due Wednesday. This year has widely been seen as one with limited legislative opportunities in the telecom and media policy space partly due to the presidential election and the long recess periods Congress faces in the second half of the year. But the FCC has stayed active, focusing on set-top boxes and ISP privacy, and many forms reflect those priorities in their lobbying.
Despite the higher spending, T-Mobile provided less detail than is typical for many lobbying disclosure forms. The entirety of its record was as follows, naming no particular pieces of legislation: “Lobbying activities and contact specific to wireless policy on consumer protection and privacy issues in the House and Senate Commerce and Judiciary Committees; general lobbying activities on spectrum policy and related recommendations in the FCC's National Broadband Plan; lobbying activities and contacts in support of telecommunications policy; lobbying activities and contacts in support of federal tax policy.” CTIA, by contrast, mentioned more than a dozen pieces of legislation occupying its lobbyists, including high-profile bills such as the Senate’s Mobile Now spectrum bill (S-2555) and the FCC Reauthorization Act (S-2644) and net neutrality bills such as the No Rate Regulation of Broadband Internet Access Act (HR-2666). CCA named those bills and more.
Charter Communications, which now encompasses Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, doled out more lobbying dollars. It spent $1.63 million vs. $1.06 million a year ago. NCTA’s spending showed a slight uptick to $3.04 million, up from $2.95 million. The American Cable Association was steady at $150,000. NAB spent less, $3.61 million now vs. $4.17 million before.
NTCA’s $300,000 expenses were $30,000 lower. Incompas, too, spent less: $228,514 vs. $353,313, as did XO Communications, down $30,000 to $130,000. Verizon is buying XO assets. The Telecommunications Industry Association dropped its spending by $30,000 to $40,000. ITTA spending rose by more than $2,000 up to $34,748. Frontier Communications doled out $40,000 more, to $180,000, on topics including net neutrality, rural broadband deployment and the set-top proceeding. Windstream dropped $10,000 to $140,000. WTA spent $10,000 more, to $90,000. WTA provided more detail than most industry filers. “WTA lobbied policymakers in support of the Alaska USF Plan and the National Tribal Telecommunications Association's (NTTA) tribal broadband factor,” it noted in one instance.