On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruling that requires large carriers such as Verizon and AT&T to enter "roaming" agreements with smaller carriers. According to CNET's Marguerite Reardon, "The court unanimously found that the FCC was well within its jurisdiction to require operators to offer roaming agreements to competitors on 'commercially reasonable' terms. If Verizon is unhappy with the rule, the court said that 'Verizon may choose not to provide mobile-Internet service.'"

In fact, the big carriers have another avenue if they are unhappy with the ruling: they may lobby Congress into passing a law to override the decision.

Data:

• Verizon's corporate PAC contributed $1.5 million to federal candidates during the 2012 election cycle.
• AT&T's corporate PAC contributed $2.4 million to federal candidates during the 2012 election cycle.

To see the itemized contributions made by Verizon and AT&T's PACs, download this spreadsheet.

Methodology: MapLight analysis of campaign contributions from Jan. 1, 2012—Nov. 17, 2012 to federal candidates from PACs controlled by Verizon and AT&T. Source: FEC.gov as of Dec. 2, 2012. If you use MapLight data please cite accordingly.