CWA Members Pan FCC BDS Proposal

The Communications Workers of America has made its opposition to FCC chairman Tom Wheeler's business data services (BDS) proposal, currently circulating among the other commissioners for a vote, known.

That came in petitions, over 7,000 of them, delivered to the FCC from CWA members.

The petitioners say they oppose the BDS revamp because the FCC proposal favors nonunion companies including Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon at the expense of companies that invest billions in their high-speed networks.

CWA says the proposal will "radically cut rates for some elements of business data services," which will have "a devastating effect on investment needed for broadband expansion, especially in rural areas.”

That, said the union, would result in less investment in fiber deployment, job cuts, and declining living standards for its workers.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.