WASHINGTON-When it comes to spending money to open doors and change hearts and minds in official Washington, the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association is King of the Hill.
As a wireless trade association, CTIA is without peer-a lobbying juggernaut. Money appears to be no object. In the first six months of this year, CTIA spent nearly $2 million on lobbying.
By comparison, the Personal Communications Industry Association spent $486,000 during the same period. The Industrial Telecommunications Association spent $20,000 during the first half of 1999. ITA lobbying got it a new bill to exempt wireless users from auctions and to allocate more spectrum for its members.
The American Mobile Telecommunications Association did not record any lobbying expenditures for the first half of the year.
However, AMTA’s biggest member, Nextel Communications Inc., spent $260,000 to lobby the Justice Department on “the resolution of the NextWave [Telecom Inc.] adversarial proceeding.”
While CTIA’s lobbying expenditures tower over the rest of the wireless industry, it is unclear whether the trade group is getting its money’s worth.
CTIA can point to only one bill-wireless 911-that made it out of Congress this year. But the benefits for public safety (a universal 911 telephone number) and for carriers (liability protection) are huge.
At the same time, CTIA lobbying helped launch a simplified wireless accounting bill and get the attention of lawmakers and the administration on the complex issue of marketing costs deductibility. However, CTIA cannot claim victory yet.
Despite the outpouring of lobbying dollars, CTIA could not find a Senate sponsor to back a privacy bill like the one in the House. And it has failed to date to get key date changes in the implementation of the 1994 digital wiretap act.
In recent years, CTIA has been ineffective in getting Congress to either pre-empt local regulation of antenna siting or curb siting moratoria around the country.
What does not show up on CTIA’s win-loss ledger are counter-lobbying efforts this year to dilute a military spectrum priority legislative provision and to kill a state-friendly numbering amendment pushed by Rep. Charles Bass (R-N.H.).
CTIA lobbying also tends to benefit other wireless trade groups and firms that spend much less. Indeed, PCIA can claim credit for helping to get building access telecom bills introduced and in getting Congress to focus on many of the same issues that keep CTIA busy. But PCIA and some AMTA members still benefited from the heavy level of CTIA lobbying on numbering, digital wiretap, privacy, simplified accounting, health and other issues.
The $1.95 million CTIA spent on lobbying through June 30 represents just part of the fire power of the association. CTIA employs an army of congressional and regulatory lobbyists, nine and 10, respectively. Moreover, CTIA’s members contribute generously to lawmakers and their political parties.
For example, AT&T Wireless Services Inc. already has spent nearly $17,000 in political action committee money on federal candidates (30 percent to Democrats, 70 percent to Republicans) in the 1999-2000 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsible Politics. Many of the recipients of AT&T Wireless PAC money have telecom oversight.
Then there is the gray area in the influence game that does not show up in lobbying disclosure documents. CTIA, which itself uses a variety of lobbying firms, and others hire politically well-connected lawyers to do their bidding. Some declare themselves lobbyists, others do not.
Lobbying on a more subtle level also can take place over dinner or cocktails, given many lawmakers and lobbyists run in the same social circles.
When all is said and done, lobbying is essential when important telecom policy is on the line. Qualcomm Inc. desperately wanted its technology recognized as a third-generation standard around the world. The firm also wanted the Clinton administration to pressure the European Union and others to remove trade barriers keeping Code Division Multiple Access technology on the sidelines.
So what did it do? It hired a law firm chock full of trade experts to press its case. The bill for the first six months this year: $400,000. The result: Qualcomm’s CDMA technology will be one of the 3G standards of the International Telecommunication Union and is gaining popularity around the globe.
3G and a host of issues occupied other wireless equipment suppliers. Motorola Inc., the nation’s top mobile communications equipment supplier, spent $1.8 million on lobbying in the first half of 1999. Lucent Technologies Inc. spent $240,000.
Finland’s Nokia Corp., the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer, spent $150,000.
Many top lobbyists are comprised of former lawmakers, congressional staff, ex-White House and former federal regulators. These folks know the laws and the people who make the laws.
CTIA paid $60,000 this year already to Jack Quinn, a former legal adviser to President Clinton and Vice President Gore, to help get relief from an Internal Revenue Service policy that forbids carriers from deducting marketing costs on an annual basis.
Leap Wireless Inc. uses Peter Knight, a top Gore fund raiser, to make points on Capitol Hill. Motorola, Teligent Inc., True Position Inc. and other high-tech firms depend on Greg Simon, former chief domestic policy adviser to Gore, to help policy makers see things their way.
Another big go-to lobbying firm is podesta.com, run by Tony Podesta, the brother of White House Chief of Staff John Podesta. Former Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), former House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Jack Fields (R-Texas) and former Rep. Tom Downey (D-N.Y.) draw their share of wireless clients as well.
