Telecom lobbying budgets increase

[Modelworks]

Anyone not surprised by this ? Can't win over the customer with fancy ads ? Force them to be customers by insuring a monopoly.

http://www.dslreports.com/show...ng-Budgets-Soar-102525

The Philadelphia Inquirer takes a casual stroll through the lobbying numbers of the largest phone and cable companies. Comcast's lobbying budget jumped from $570,000 in 2001 to $12.5 million in 2008, while cable lobbying group the NCTA doubled its lobbying budget to $14.4 million during the same period. Verizon's lobbying rose to $18 million in 2008 from $8.2 million in 2001, while AT&T's budget fattened to $15.1 million in 2008 from $6.1 million. Not too surprisingly, the often under-funded operations that represent consumer interests don't get the same treatment:

"They have PR firms and strategy consultants that they can pull into any given issue very quickly," said Ben Scott, policy director of the left-leaning nonprofit-advocacy group Free Press. "If Comcast decided to get in front of the 435 members of the House, they could do that in a week. I don't think I could do it in a year."


Expect those budgets to continue to soar now that all of these telecom giants are engaged in battle with Google across multiple issues (net neutrality, increased competition, White Spaces). Google was a babe in the lobbying woods just a few years ago, but got a crash course in lobbying thanks largely to the folks at Verizon and AT&T, who run some of the most sophisticated (and quite often underhanded) lobbying operations in any industry.

 

[fleshconsumed]

It's a lucrative business. Everybody needs email, phone, cell phone, data plans, text messaging... As such there are huge money to be made and telcos/cablecos have been consistently lobbying for less and less regulation. IMHO many of these services have become so essential for a functioning society that they need to be treated as utilities.

 

[Fear No Evil]

Obama should take them over.

 

[BTA]

Cable companies like Comcast should worry you more than telco's. Hell they already broke up Ma Bell years ago. And if you talk to many in the telco industry, they'll tell you that decision ultimately hurt consumers with higher prices and stagnated technology in the telecom world.

There are already laws requiring line sharing and such for the telco's, plus they (we) get taxed quite a bit as well. I think you'll find the majority of lobbying performed by the Telco's (especially Verizon), is aimed squarely at breaking through the barrier that Comcast and Time Warner have created.

Cable companies like Comcast are big-time monopolies in the areas they control. And rest assured they do every bit of lobbying to the local governments as they can to keep it that way. Why do you think Verizon has to fight every time they try to bring in a competing product into an area? Cable companies and the local governments are constantly in a big game of scratch my back ill scratch yours.

 

[Modelworks]

Comcast is considered a Telecom. They changed the definition a few years back to include any company that transfers information regardless of the medium used.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICE.--The term ''telecommunications service'' means the offering of telecommunications for a fee directly to the public, or to such classes of users as to be effectively available directly to the public, regardless of the facilities used.

 

[BTA]

Yet they arent tax'd the same. Funny how that works.

 

[BTA]

Or held to the same regulations

 

[techs]

The funniest (and saddest) posts are people who scream that the cable companies should NOT be regulated.
Because they don't understand they already have a government sponsored monoply.

 

[charrison]

Originally posted by: techs
The funniest (and saddest) posts are people who scream that the cable companies should NOT be regulated.
Because they don't understand they already have a government sponsored monoply.

Cables regulated monopolies are all but dead. Most states have reformed their cable franchise laws and this cable monopoly is gone. Verizon and ATT have ben building our video systems for several years now.

 

[Fear No Evil]

I thought Obama promised he would not be influenced by all this lobbying? What are we worried about?

 

[bobsmith1492]

Originally posted by: BTA
Cable companies like Comcast should worry you more than telco's. Hell they already broke up Ma Bell years ago. And if you talk to many in the telco industry, they'll tell you that decision ultimately hurt consumers with higher prices and stagnated technology in the telecom world.

There are already laws requiring line sharing and such for the telco's, plus they (we) get taxed quite a bit as well. I think you'll find the majority of lobbying performed by the Telco's (especially Verizon), is aimed squarely at breaking through the barrier that Comcast and Time Warner have created.

Cable companies like Comcast are big-time monopolies in the areas they control. And rest assured they do every bit of lobbying to the local governments as they can to keep it that way. Why do you think Verizon has to fight every time they try to bring in a competing product into an area? Cable companies and the local governments are constantly in a big game of scratch my back ill scratch yours.

I'd disagree that Comcast is a monopoly... around here, there are cable and DSL options from Charter, Comcast, At&t, AND Verizon. That's a pretty good spread if you ask me. Also this is only a small city of ~100K people.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: techs
The funniest (and saddest) posts are people who scream that the cable companies should NOT be regulated.
Because they don't understand they already have a government sponsored monoply.

government sponsorship is a red herring. once the lines are laid down the cost is ridiculously low, so they can threaten to price at variable cost and keep everyone out.