The Consumer Cellular NOligarchy Profile
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Consumer Cellular earns a NOligarchy Score of 91.58 out of 100 — the highest mark among the five companies tracked in this sector from Q3 2024 through Q2 2026 (8 quarters — the two-year tracking period). That score is shaped by an absence of matched federal lobbying, Political Action Committee (PAC), fine, and subsidy records — but also by a documented $1.1 billion dividend recapitalization that private equity owner GTCR extracted from the company before the tracked period, which pulls the Wealth Extraction grade down significantly. Consumer Cellular operates as a privately held company, which constrains both what disclosures it must file and what the public record can show.
Current Pillar Scores
Political Access
100.0
Wealth Extraction
64.5
Playing by the Rules
100.0
Score history — 23 quarters
Tier bands show where each quarter's score falls — no numeric y-axis needed. The dashed ring marks the year-over-year comparison point. Tap any quarter but the first to see its pillar breakdown.
The Pillar Grades:
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Political Access Grade: 100/100. No lobbying filings, no PAC activity, and no executive political donations were matched to Consumer Cellular during the tracked period.
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Wealth Extraction Grade: 64.5/100. The score is driven by a documented $1.1 billion dividend recapitalization GTCR executed in February 2022 — loading the company with debt to hand a lump-sum payment to its private equity owners. A CEO pay ratio estimate is available from industry benchmarks.
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Playing by the Rules Grade: 100/100. No regulatory fines or penalties were matched to Consumer Cellular during the tracked period, and no public subsidy records appear in any source this project monitors.
The Sector Context: Consumer Cellular ranks 1st out of 5 among companies sharing its federal industry classification (Wired and Wireless Telecommunications Carriers, except satellite), with a sector average score of 33.2. Consumer Cellular’s 91.58 places it well above that baseline — though the gap reflects, in large part, how much less the public record captures about a private company compared to the publicly traded carriers in the same peer group.
The Bottom Line: A High Score Shadowed by a Private Equity Extraction
The most concrete power move visible in Consumer Cellular’s public record is not from the Q3 2024 through Q2 2026 period at all — it is a $1.1 billion dividend recap from 2022, in which GTCR piled new debt onto Consumer Cellular to funnel more than a billion dollars back to itself. Beyond that documented transaction, no lobbying filings, PAC contributions, executive political donations, regulatory fines, or subsidy records have been matched to Consumer Cellular across any source this project tracks. That reflects the current limit of available public data — not a confirmed finding that Consumer Cellular spent nothing, donated nothing, or broke no rules.
Outside Current Tracking Coverage: Political Spending
No federal lobbying filings, no PAC activity, and no executive political donations have been matched to Consumer Cellular from Q3 2024 through Q2 2026. As a privately held company, Consumer Cellular is not independently required to file the same range of public disclosures as its publicly traded competitors.
EXHIBIT — THE RESERVED SEAT
$0 in lobbying · $0 in PAC money
Consumer Cellular filed no federal lobbying and ran no corporate PAC in this window — the reserved seat at the witness table sits empty.
That absence of matched records does not confirm that Consumer Cellular has no political footprint — it confirms that none has been found and linked in available public filings.
A Billion-Dollar Private Equity Extraction
The single most significant wealth-extraction event visible in Consumer Cellular’s public record predates the current tracking period but directly shapes how this profile scores the company. In February 2022, GTCR executed a $1.1 billion dividend recapitalization — taking on new debt in Consumer Cellular’s name specifically to hand a lump-sum payout back to its private equity owners, as reported by Moody’s. A dividend recapitalization works by deliberately increasing the company’s debt load so that private equity owners can cash out before a sale — the company’s workers and customers bear the financial weight of that debt while the owners pocket the proceeds. Because Consumer Cellular is privately held, no revenue or earnings baseline is publicly disclosed against which to measure that $1.1 billion — the number stands alone.
On executive pay: Consumer Cellular is privately held and is not required to publicly disclose its CEO pay ratio. The best available figure is 110:1, based on AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch industry benchmarks for comparable companies in this sector. That means the executive at the top of the organizational chart likely collects roughly 110 times the earnings of a median frontline worker — the equivalent of a customer service representative working more than a century to match a single year of executive pay at that ratio. Because this is an industry benchmark estimate rather than a disclosed figure, no specific dollar amount for CEO compensation can be stated.
Outside Current Tracking Coverage: Regulatory and Legal History
No regulatory fines, penalties, or public subsidy records have been matched to Consumer Cellular from Q3 2024 through Q2 2026. Independent compliance filings are not required of private companies at the same level as publicly traded carriers, which limits what the public record can show.
The absence of violation records in this profile reflects the current state of available data — not a confirmed clean docket.