Vonage invests nearly $1.4m to lobby on competition

Internet phone company Vonage spent nearly $1.4 million to lobby the federal government in 2007, an Associated Press report said.

The Associated Press report said the company lobbied Congress on telecommunications competition and consumer issues, according to a disclosure form posted online February 13 by the Senate's public records office.

In January, Vonage settled litigation with Nortel Networks, the latest in a series of multimillion-dollar patent settlements with traditional telecommunications companies.

Last year, the company agreed to pay AT&T $39 million to settle a patent suit. Vonage also settled lawsuits with Verizon Communications and Sprint Nextel for a total of $200 million in 2007.

The report added that Vonage spent more than $601,000 in the second half of the year lobbying on those issues, according to its most recent filing.

Lobbyists are required to disclose activities that could influence members of the executive and legislative branches, under a federal law enacted in 1995, the Associated Press report further said.