With the wireless sector the most competitive in the telecom industry, it is hard to imagine that company executives can simultaneously beat each other’s brains out in the marketplace and work in harmony on issues of common interest. But they do for the most part, owing to industry trade associations of different sizes, focuses, strengths and weaknesses. Trade associations give wireless sectors a chance to provide a united front before federal regulators, Congress and the courts on major policy and legal issues of the day.
It doesn’t always work out that way. How could it, given the obvious fact that association members are competitors headed by chief executives with personalities as varied as their company’s business strategies. But, for the most part, unity is achieved and it can work wonders in the world of advocacy, where there is power in numbers. Individual wireless companies-particularly large ones-typically supplement policy advocacy with their own armies of lobbyists. But the trade association remains the primary focal point of industry groups.
Big business
While trade groups represent different wireless business segments, not-for-profit associations also tend to be unofficial businesses in their own rights by virtue of having strong positions in the highly lucrative trade-show business. But suppliers, service providers and others benefit immensely from being able to congregate with major stakeholders once or twice a year at nice locations, where good food is plentiful and a gorgeous golf course is usually nearby.
Image is important, and trade associations often support charities and other worthwhile causes in their communities. They are powerful political organs as well in terms of lobbying and fund-raising for federal candidates. Associations help craft industry technical standards. As such, trade associations collectively represent a powerful force in policymaking and the marketplace.
It is not unusual for companies to have membership in multiple trade associations. It’s a cost of doing business and winning. Wireless trade associations have felt the impact of carrier and vendor consolidation as well as the ever-changing shifts in the industry landscape. Some groups have retooled, reinvented or were absorbed-a life cycle not unlike companies they have represented.
CTIA
In the wireless industry, there is cellphone association CTIA and everyone else. It wasn’t always that way. Early on, CTIA, then known as the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, and the Personal Communications Industry Association vied for bragging rights of the mobile-phone industry. But that situation has long since passed.
Like the cellphone industry, CTIA has grown in stride and stature since its beginnings in the early 1980s. The organization represents cellular service providers, manufacturers and others, but it is regarded by most as a carrier association-especially for industry giants like AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc.
From time to time, contentious issues-such as open access, special access, universal service reform, the now-largely defunct 411 wireless directory, the U.S. Trade Commission’s patent infringement/import ban, distracted driving and, once upon a time, local number portability-have prompted carriers to go their own way to the chagrin and frustration of CTIA. But that’s the nature of the beast.
Still, CTIA is the most influential trade group in the wireless industry and has as much clout as any industry association in official Washington. It had a budget of nearly $50 million in tax-year 2005, the most recent data available for the association.
Total revenue came in at $56.8 million that year, with membership and conventions accounting for $25 million and $23 million, respectively. Licensing revenue brought in $5 million; management fees totaled $832,638; and product sales accounted for $39,214. CTIA spent more than $5 million on lobbing and $1 million on consultants in 2005.
The head of the association, Steve Largent, was paid a salary of $961,659, plus $48,888 in employee benefits that year.
PCIA
PCIA’s roots reach deep in the wireless industry to the once-thriving paging business and the beginnings of mobile telephony.
Formerly Telocator Network of America, PCIA has had to reinvent itself several times during the past decade to keep pace with industry changes. It now appears to have found a solid niche as the national voice for the tower industry.
PCIA, like CTIA, serves as a frequency coordinator, and sponsors leading tower trade shows for companies like American Tower Corp., Crown Castle International, SBA Communications, Global Signal Inc., AAT Communications and others.
PCIA, led by former FCC official Michael Fitch ($211,943 salary), had a budget of about $3 million in 2005, according the nonprofit database of GuideStar.org. The lion’s share of revenue was generated by coordination fees ($1.8 million) and conventions/ meetings ($880,000).
WCA
Though it has been around since 1988-albeit with a different focus-the Wireless Communications Association International has made its presence increasingly felt as the main spokesman for the emerging wireless broadband industry. WCA, which is led by Andrew Kreig, had a budget of about $2 million in 2006, with conventions netting the association $974, 416 that year. Membership fees came in at about $104,000. Kreig’s salary was $328,635.
EWA
The Enterprise Wireless Alliance, (formerly the Industrial Telecommunications Association and the American Mobile Telecommunications Association) is headed by Mark Crosby, a veteran wireless association chief and one of the best in the business.
EWA represents the spectrum users-large and small-as well as vendors, service providers, spectrum entrepreneurs and communications sales and service organizations. EWA had a budget of nearly $2.7 million in 2005. Frequency selection and communications services generated $2 million and the annual conference netted more than $200,000 for EWA that year. Crosby had a salary of $270,000 in 2005.
TIA
The Telecommunications Industry Association, the leading trade group for manufacturers, had about a $20 million budget in 2005. Trade shows brought in about $15 million that year, with another $866,646 coming from standards royalties.
Former TIA president Matthew Flanigan made $611,00 that year. Grant Seiffert took over the reins of TIA in January. His salary was not immediately available. TIA and the United States Telecom Association (the leading wireline telephone association with a $40.4 million budget in 2005) joined forces to create the NXTcomm trade show conference.
CEA
The Consumer Electronics Association boasted a budget of $55 million in 2005. Its popular trade show netted nearly $47 million that year. Gary Shapiro, the association’s CEO, was paid $561,052 in 2005.
NAB
The National Association of Broadcasters, currently engaged in battle with high-tech giants over potential Wi-Fi use vacant TV spectrum, had $44 million budget in 2005. Also a stalwart on the trade show circuit, NAB made nearly $30 million from the main convention and another $1 million from the radio convention that year. Former NAB president Eddie Fritts had a salary of $1.1 million in 2005. The current president is David Rehr, whose salary was not immediately available.
Others
Some smaller wireless and wireline companies have opted for the Rural Cellular Association and the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunication Companies for representation.
