IP Democracy: Telecom Act Price Tag

The National Journal’s David Hatch has this dishy piece on how much telecom and technology lobbying groups spent during the first half of 2005. According to the nonpartisan PoliticalMoneyLine, telecom and technology companies spent $154.2 million on federal lobbying during 1H2005 (a figure that no doubt escalated during 2H2005, and is climbing still now).

That’s a rise of $8 million rise over 2H2004 and a $14 million rise over the 1H2004. Driving this growth, of course, is the pending Telecom Act rewrite.

The biggest spender was US Telecom, the trade association for the major incumbent telcos, followed by Microsoft and the NAB.

The biggest communications spender for all of 2005 was the U.S. Telecom Association, whose members include the regional Bell companies. It devoted $16.8 million to Washington lobbying. Microsoft ranked second ($8.7 million), and the National Association of Manufacturers was third ($8.3 million). Other heavy hitters in 2005 were: National Association of Broadcasters, $7.8 million; Motorola, $7.6 million; BellSouth, $7.4 million; IBM, $7.2 million; Cingular Wireless, $7.1 million; National Cable and Telecommunications Association, $7 million; and Comcast and Time Warner, which each spent about $4 million.

Proving the old adage (at least in DC) that tech companies are lame lobbyists, Silicon Valley powerhouses were pathetic spenders during 1H2005, with Yahoo spending only $800,000, Amazon.com spending $460,000, eBay spending $400,000 and Google spending only $220,000.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on February 28, 2006 1:46 PM to IP Democracy