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CWA Supports SBC Bid for Long-Distance Service
Approval of Southwestern Bell's bid to enter the long-distance market in Texas would mean lower prices for consumers and new high-skill jobs, the Communications Workers of America said Monday in papers filed in support of the SBC application.
CWA said SBC's willingness to comply with the requirements of the 1996 Telecommunications Act has lead to a thriving competitive market for local telephone companies in Texas. Allowing SBC to offer long-distance service would further enhance choices for residential consumers, CWA told the Federal Communications Commission. "The long-distance market is highly concentrated in Texas now," CWA President Morton Bahr said. "Opening the market to SBC will provide new options to residential customers, who have seen prices rise in recent years."
CWA represents more than 8,500 employees of SBC in Texas, including service representatives and technicians. CWA also represents AT&T employees in Texas, primarily in the company's long-distance operations. The union has more than 630,000 members nationwide, the majority in telecommunications.
Because of that, Bahr said CWA wouldn't support a company's PUC application unless it was clear the proposal was in the public interest and the company had a track record of complying with the law. "SBC meets those standards," he said.
In the local market in Texas, SBC's competitors serve more than 1.4 million telephone lines, two-thirds of them provided through the companies' own facilities, the union noted. Competitors serve about 12 percent of all access lines, more than twice the national average.
CWA said there is no reason to fear the company will backslide. Rigorous performance standards put forth by the commission require SBC to put more than $289 million at risk each year if it fails to meet the requirements. The company also stands to lose $1 billion over three years under a parallel federal plan designed to ensure SBC's compliance.
CWA also noted that allowing SBC to offer long distance would help meet one of the goals of the 1996 act, to create high-wage jobs in the telecommunications industry.
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CWA said SBC's willingness to comply with the requirements of the 1996 Telecommunications Act has lead to a thriving competitive market for local telephone companies in Texas. Allowing SBC to offer long-distance service would further enhance choices for residential consumers, CWA told the Federal Communications Commission. "The long-distance market is highly concentrated in Texas now," CWA President Morton Bahr said. "Opening the market to SBC will provide new options to residential customers, who have seen prices rise in recent years."
CWA represents more than 8,500 employees of SBC in Texas, including service representatives and technicians. CWA also represents AT&T employees in Texas, primarily in the company's long-distance operations. The union has more than 630,000 members nationwide, the majority in telecommunications.
Because of that, Bahr said CWA wouldn't support a company's PUC application unless it was clear the proposal was in the public interest and the company had a track record of complying with the law. "SBC meets those standards," he said.
In the local market in Texas, SBC's competitors serve more than 1.4 million telephone lines, two-thirds of them provided through the companies' own facilities, the union noted. Competitors serve about 12 percent of all access lines, more than twice the national average.
CWA said there is no reason to fear the company will backslide. Rigorous performance standards put forth by the commission require SBC to put more than $289 million at risk each year if it fails to meet the requirements. The company also stands to lose $1 billion over three years under a parallel federal plan designed to ensure SBC's compliance.
CWA also noted that allowing SBC to offer long distance would help meet one of the goals of the 1996 act, to create high-wage jobs in the telecommunications industry.
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