Search News
For the Media
For media inquiries, call CWA Communications at 202-434-1168 or email comms@cwa-union.org. To read about CWA Members, Leadership or Industries, visit our About page.
CWA: 'Hold Internet Telecom Providers to Industry Standards'
CWA is gathering allies in a campaign at federal and state levels to subject companies providing voice telephony over the Internet to the same rules and social obligations as traditional telecommunications providers.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is an emerging technology that converts a conversation into digital packets sent over the Internet and reconstructed at the other end as normal speech. It requires a telephone handset, special router and broadband connection, either DSL or cable modem.
All the Bell companies are planning or have already begun to offer VoIP to business customers. They face intense competition from cable providers Cox, Time Warner and Comcast, which want a share of the multibillion-dollar local market.
The cable companies and nonunion upstarts such as Vonage, Net2Phone and Voiceglo hope to undercut the price of local telephone voice service by avoiding payments to support universal service that local telephone companies must pay.
Congress is beginning to look at VoIP, and the FCC - traditionally reluctant to interfere with use of the Internet - has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking.
Timely Action
In January, CWA joined the Alliance for Public Technology, disability groups, the National Consumers League and others in writing to the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, urging members "to ensure that the social obligations of universal service, disability access, and public safety continue to be the hallmark of our nation's telecommunications policy."
The letter makes a strong case that VoIP is "functionally equivalent to plain old telephone service," and as such should be subject to the same FCC regulations and the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
The nation's telecom providers are all required to pay into a $6 billion "universal service" fund that subsidizes the high cost of providing service to rural areas, low-income households, schools and libraries. "The public switched network remains the backbone of this country's communications system and VoIP providers must contribute to the maintenance of the network through intercarrier compensation," the letter states.
It also points out that the Telecommunications Act mandates that telecom services must be accessible and usable for people with hearing and speech disabilities.
In the interest of public safety, the letter calls for VoIP providers to be required to provide emergency 911 service to customers and the same basic consumer protections required of traditional providers, including privacy, advanced notification of termination of service and other obligations.
At the State Level
On Jan. 27, Local 9400 Vice President Alex Rooker testified about VoIP before the California Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications committee.
"We are supportive of the new technology and growth in the industry, but we believe there should be a level playing field so that the telephone companies can compete equally," Rooker said. "Otherwise it could be devastating to the very workforce that has built the telephone industry as well as the consumers who depend on a high quality of service."
State Senator Richard Alarcon put representatives of the state Public Utility Commission, SBC, Verizon and the California Cable Commission on notice that he shared Rooker's concerns and would continue to monitor the situation.
The debate has been heating up since late October, when CWA urged the New York State Public Service Commission to uphold a complaint by Frontier Telephone over Vonage's requirement that customers subscribe to a special 911 service, among other issues.
In Ohio, CWA District 4 Vice President Jeff Rechenbach wrote to the chair of his state's Public Service Commission asking it not to approve Time Warner's filing to provide VoIP without imposing the same consumer protections called for in CWA's letter to Congress.
"If approved at face value, the filing will provide enormous competitive advantage to Time Warner at the expense of Ohio's incumbent telephone companies." he wrote.
For more on VoIP, go to CWA's website section on VoIP.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is an emerging technology that converts a conversation into digital packets sent over the Internet and reconstructed at the other end as normal speech. It requires a telephone handset, special router and broadband connection, either DSL or cable modem.
All the Bell companies are planning or have already begun to offer VoIP to business customers. They face intense competition from cable providers Cox, Time Warner and Comcast, which want a share of the multibillion-dollar local market.
The cable companies and nonunion upstarts such as Vonage, Net2Phone and Voiceglo hope to undercut the price of local telephone voice service by avoiding payments to support universal service that local telephone companies must pay.
Congress is beginning to look at VoIP, and the FCC - traditionally reluctant to interfere with use of the Internet - has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking.
Timely Action
In January, CWA joined the Alliance for Public Technology, disability groups, the National Consumers League and others in writing to the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, urging members "to ensure that the social obligations of universal service, disability access, and public safety continue to be the hallmark of our nation's telecommunications policy."
The letter makes a strong case that VoIP is "functionally equivalent to plain old telephone service," and as such should be subject to the same FCC regulations and the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
The nation's telecom providers are all required to pay into a $6 billion "universal service" fund that subsidizes the high cost of providing service to rural areas, low-income households, schools and libraries. "The public switched network remains the backbone of this country's communications system and VoIP providers must contribute to the maintenance of the network through intercarrier compensation," the letter states.
It also points out that the Telecommunications Act mandates that telecom services must be accessible and usable for people with hearing and speech disabilities.
In the interest of public safety, the letter calls for VoIP providers to be required to provide emergency 911 service to customers and the same basic consumer protections required of traditional providers, including privacy, advanced notification of termination of service and other obligations.
At the State Level
On Jan. 27, Local 9400 Vice President Alex Rooker testified about VoIP before the California Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications committee.
"We are supportive of the new technology and growth in the industry, but we believe there should be a level playing field so that the telephone companies can compete equally," Rooker said. "Otherwise it could be devastating to the very workforce that has built the telephone industry as well as the consumers who depend on a high quality of service."
State Senator Richard Alarcon put representatives of the state Public Utility Commission, SBC, Verizon and the California Cable Commission on notice that he shared Rooker's concerns and would continue to monitor the situation.
The debate has been heating up since late October, when CWA urged the New York State Public Service Commission to uphold a complaint by Frontier Telephone over Vonage's requirement that customers subscribe to a special 911 service, among other issues.
In Ohio, CWA District 4 Vice President Jeff Rechenbach wrote to the chair of his state's Public Service Commission asking it not to approve Time Warner's filing to provide VoIP without imposing the same consumer protections called for in CWA's letter to Congress.
"If approved at face value, the filing will provide enormous competitive advantage to Time Warner at the expense of Ohio's incumbent telephone companies." he wrote.
For more on VoIP, go to CWA's website section on VoIP.