AT&T barely outpaced Google to be the third quarter's top spender on lobbying, shelling out $4.13 million, up 8% from Q3 2016, according to Consumer Watchdog's tracking of 16 telecom/technology companies.

The telco is trying to shepherd its Time Warner merger through Washington, though it has just extended the close on that deal as the Justice Department continues to vet it; the FCC is not separately reviewing the merger.

Google was a close second behind AT&T, spending $4.17 million on lobbying, up 9% from Q3 2016.

On the cable side, Comcast spent $3.51 million, up 3%, while Charter spent $1.88 million, down 6%. Among technology companies, several saw double-digit percentage increases in lobbying spend for the quarter.

Amazon spending was way up, increasing 26% year-over-year to $3.41 million, almost triple what it spent in 2013. Facebook spending was $2.85 million, up 30% over Q3 2016, and Apple spent $1.86 million, up a whopping 74% from last year. In contrast, Twitter's spending was tweet-sized at only $120,000, down 29%.

Consumer Watchdog based its numbers on filings with the House of Representatives that were due last week.

Consumer Watchdog has asked the Federal Trade Commission to file suit against Google on antitrust grounds over its Android operating system.

The call came after the European Union initially concluded this week that Google had abused its dominant position in search by putting restrictions on Android device manufacturers and mobile broadband ISPs in violation of EU antitrust rules.

Consumer Watchdog says Google has the same power and employs the same practices in the U.S. "“Our antitrust enforcers need to step up and do their job instead of letting the Europeans do it for them,” said John Simpson, privacy project director for Consumer Watchdog.

The FTC investigated Google's search practices but closed that investigation in 2013. There was talk earlier this year on Capitol Hill about asking the FTC to reopen that investigation given new concerns about Google favoring its own content in local search.

The Computer & Communications Industry Association—whose members include Google, Microsoft and Yahoo!—sent up a "be careful what you wish for" warning flare following the EU decision. “The [European] Commission needs to be careful, as challenging the contractual provisions that allow open source operating systems to compete against proprietary software can backfire. If not careful, the Commission could harm competition, not foster it.

“While we can appreciate the European Commission’s desire to be vigilant about investigating competition issues, the market for apps and services is extremely competitive," CCIA said. "At first blush, it is difficult to see the contracts identified by the Commission as being competition problems. In fact, they have clear procompetitive motivations."

Google and Comcast were Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, in 2015 federal lobbying spending by 16 tech and communications firms monitored by Consumer Watchdog, according to records filed with Congress.

Google topped the list at $16.66 million, followed closely by Comcast at $15.63 million. Comcast's total was down 7% from last year, but only a portion of 2015 was spent trying to push the ultimately failed Time Warner Cable merger through the FCC and the Justice Department.

Time Warner Cable, the nation's No. 2 cable operator, spent $6.98 million in 2015, down 31.2% from the year before, when it, too, was trying to get the would be Comcast merger through the regulatory gauntlet, though it was (and is) back at it with the Charter deal. 

Edge providers were on the upswing. Amazon's spending was up a record 91% to $9.07 million in 2015 over $4.74 million in 2014.

Facebook, which has boosted its Washington profile in recent years, came in slightly ahead of Amazon at $9.85 million, but only up 5.5%.

Google spent a record $16.83 million on lobbying last year, barely edging out Comcast's $16.8 million, in efforts to influence policy decisions, based on records filed with the Clerk of the House, according to the nonpartisan public interest group Consumer Watchdog.

Google and Comcast topped the list of the 15 technology and communications companies that spent the most money on lobbying efforts, Consumer Watchdog said. Facebook, Apple and Amazon also spent record amounts last year. Taken together, the top 15 spent a total of $116.62 million on lobbying in 2014, a 3% decrease from 2013's total of  $120.28 million.

While six of the companies increased spending from 2013 levels -- Facebook (up 45% to $9.34 million from $6.43 million), Amazon (up 35% to $4.74 million from $3.46 million), Apple (up 22% to $4.11 million from $3.37 million), Google (up 20% from $14.06 million), Sprint (up 9% to $2.99 million from $2.75 million) and Yahoo (up 6% to $2.94 million from $2.78 million) -- the other nine companies showed decreased outlays, according to the Clerk of the House’s Lobbying Disclosure database, Consumer Watchdog said.

Notably, Comcast and Time Warner Cable were among those with decreased spending, despite waiting on approval for their pending merger. Comcast's $16.8 million expenditure was down 10% from 2013's $18.71 million, while TWC's $7.83 million was down 6% from its $8.29 million in 2013.

Rounding out the top 15 spenders in the tech/communications sector were AT&T ($14.56 million), Verizon ($11.22 million), Microsoft ($8.33 million), Oracle ($5.83 million), IBM ($4.95 million), Intel ($3.8 million) and Cisco ($2.35 million).

“It’s important to understand just how much money these companies are throwing around in Washington to buy the policies they want,” John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project director, said. “Policymaking is now all about big bucks, not big ideas.”