The U.S. Federal Election Commission has approved the collection by political action committees of contributions submitted using test messaging.
But the largest U.S. wireless carriers, Sprint Nextel Corp, Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA, have reservations about the plan.
The carriers are worried about potential liability and regulatory issues, including the matter of
liability for determining donors’ eligibility to contribute to a campaign.
As envisioned, users would be able to send a text message to a specific short code to donate to a candidate or a political action committee, perhaps billing the transaction to their mobile bill.
Of each texted contribution, the political solicitor is likely to receive about 50 percent to 70 percent of the total, the rest shared by the carrier and the aggregator, Reuters reports.
