Campaign donations by text? Not so fast, wireless carriers say

Wireless carriers are balking at US regulators' move to allow political donations by text message, a plan that could reshape the nation's campaign finance system by giving cell-phone users the ability to make instant contributions.

The proposal to allow text contributions - which has been backed by the campaigns of Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney - was approved last month by the Federal Election Commission.

It also has the support of fundraisers and campaign finance reform groups, which told the FEC that text donations would help "empower" those who can give only a few dollars to campaigns.

This year's campaign season has been marked by six- and seven-figure contributions from wealthy donors to groups known as "Super PACs," or political action committees, which have no limits on donations and spending.

But the wireless carriers who would oversee the donations-by-text service - including the four US giants Sprint Nextel Corp, Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA - have yet to get on board with the plan.

The carriers - who account for about 90 percent of the more than 330 million wireless subscriptions in the United States - are worried about an array of liability and regulatory issues they could face in handling contributions to presidential and congressional candidates.

The carriers are asking the FEC for more guidance on how they should implement a donations-by-text program, according to four industry sources.

One sticking point is that the carriers want to make sure they will not be held liable for determining donors' eligibility to contribute to a campaign, industry sources said.

That means ruling out that a donor is a corporation, foreign citizen or underaged American who is not allowed to contribute, or whether the donor has met various limits for donations to a campaign.

Through CTIA, the wireless industry's trade association, mobile carriers have sent a request to the FEC asking for more information on the amount of liability and control they would have if they do offer the donations service, according to three of the industry sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because the July 3 letter to the FEC is not yet public.

One industry executive said it is not certain that all the issues will be ironed out in time for text donations to be used during the 2012 campaign.

"At this stage, it's not clear that telecoms are anywhere close to coming to terms of what's going to happen here," the executive said. "I don't think this is anywhere near being resolved."