With political and regulatory issues heating up in the telecom sector, it’s instructive to see who’s spending the big bucks lobbying lawmakers. Politico today posted a list and not surprisingly big telecom players like AT&T and Verizon are high on the list, along with Comcast, Google and other competitors.
Wrote the political blog:
Seventeen of the country’s biggest tech companies shelled out a combined $21 million last quarter to push congressional lawmakers and federal officials on a wide range of issues — from patent reform to privacy to broadband regulation.
Here’s the list:
* Verizon: $4.4 million
* Comcast: $3.82 million
* AT&T: $3.08 million
* Microsoft: $1.85 million
* HP: $1.6 million
* Google: $1.34 millio
* Oracle: $1.15 million
* Entertainment Software Alliance: $1.14 million
* Intel: $840,000
* IBM: $730,000
* Yahoo: $550,000
* ITIC: $535,000
* Amazon: $500,000
* Cisco: $370,000
* Apple: $330,000
* Dell: $690,000
* Facebook: $60,000
Connected Planet’s Take, Joan Engebretson:
It’s not surprising that Verizon and AT&T are big spenders. But it is interesting how much they outspent companies like Google, Yahoo and Amazon, who have been their chief opponents on the Net Neutrality issue.
Although the FCC is positioning itself to impose Net Neutrality measures, many have argued that only the legislature has the power to do that-and perhaps Verizon and AT&T’s influence will prevent legislators from taking any action there. As we reported earlier this week, that certainly seems to be the carriers’ hope.
Of course not all of Verizon and AT&T’s money went toward fighting Net Neutrality. But that’s certainly one of their key initiatives.
How much did Sprint spend?
I would rather spend 10 cents per minute for a guarantee quality video conference call than a free unknown quality video conference, even if that call is to my housemate down stairs. Verizon better take care of the last mile router so that my voice doesn’t get choppy after they charge me 10 cents per minute or I will take my business to AT&T. If I am on Verizon and the other end of the call is on AT&T, Verizon and AT&T better sort out the peering point. Net Neutrality will kill all these fun things.
What is net neutrality? “I give you the cable that connects to a router that I don’t own and control. Don’t ask me why your voice becomes choppy or your face becomes cubes. Try reduce your browser’s picture downloads and see what happens. If that doesn’t help, so be it. I don’t know what is going on with the upstream router and I can’t control how your neighbour compete the bandwidth with you. Go sort thing out with your dear neighbour. Our PSTN will never give you a video conference service. My kind of service is your only choice. What are you going to do to me?” That’s what net neutrality is.