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Communication Workers of America voiced support for the main thrust of an FCC proposal to update policies governing access charges paid by long distance and wireless providers to local wireline companies – changes meant to reflect the shift from copper wire to digital -- but suggested modifications to protect jobs and service provided by mid-size rural companies.

CWA also offered ways to improve the FCC's proposals for using the federal Universal Service Fund (USF) to spur high-speed Internet deployment.  CWA's Speed Matters campaign has long supported using the USF, originally created to expand voice service in rural areas, to expand broadband service.

In a letter this week to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, CWA President Larry Cohen applauded the general framework of a draft proposal that would level the playing field between telecom companies and cable companies, ending the cable industry's use of loopholes in the system to avoid paying access charges for its long-distance service.

However, proposed changes to sharply curtail access charges over four years would hurt rural mid-size carriers such as Embarq, Frontier, Century Tel, Windstream, FairPoint and others, not giving them sufficient transition time to adapt to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, Cohen stated.  The proposal could cost jobs and have the unintended result of reducing their investment in broadband.

The current FCC proposal would require mid-size carriers to offer broadband service to all customers within 5 years or lose their USF subsidies – all the while seeing revenues from access charges declining.

To protect workers and rural customers, CWA urged the commission to consider ways to ease the transition on rural companies, such as extending the period for reducing access charges, and to consider creating a supplementary USF available to rural carriers for broadband build-out.