CWA Study: Verizon Wireless - Big Cable Deal is a Job Killer

A new CWA report finds that the proposed deal between Verizon Wireless and big cable companies will cost workers and communities as many as 72,000 lost jobs if approved. Read the full report here.

The Federal Communications Commission is reviewing the deal that would allow Verizon Wireless and companies including Time Warner and Comcast to sell each other's products, thereby eliminating competition.

To safeguard jobs and protect the interests of consumers and communities, CWA is calling on regulators to: 1) prohibit Verizon Wireless and the cable companies from cross-marketing in Verizon's landline footprint, 2) require Verizon to build the state-of-the-art fiber optic FiOS network to 95% of Verizon households in existing markets and increase FiOS buildout in rural and low-income areas, and 3) ensure that Verizon Wireless and other cable companies are not able to lock out competitors.

Verizon has made it clear that it will not follow through with an expansion of its FiOS service to customers and communities that do not currently have access to it. Despite the fact that FiOS is profitable for Verizon, CEO Lowell McAdam said that the company plans to stop its buildout of FiOS television and Internet services in the next several years and "wind down the FiOS spend."

But if Verizon were to build out its network, about 72,000 new jobs would be created, the CWA report found. Job growth would be concentrated in eight Eastern states and Washington D.C.

Some previous assessments by the FCC of the impact of mergers and other deals on jobs haven't held up. The FCC failed to fully consider how the AT&T/T-Mobile USA merger would positively affect jobs. Regulators did not approve that merger, and last month, T-Mobile USA shut down seven call centers, affecting the jobs of 3,300 workers while it continues to offshore work to Asia and Central America. In this case, regulators' analysis was flawed.