CWA Tells FCC to Act Quickly to Reform Universal Service Fund

A public forum in Lincoln, Neb., gave local leaders an opportunity to press the Federal Communications Commission to move forward on high-speed broadband.

The forum was part of an FCC workshop on universal service fund reform. The FCC is looking at how to modernize the USF, established by the rewrite of the Telecommunications Act in 1996.

CWA supports reforming the USF to recognize broadband and wireless as the critical telecommunications services of the 21st century, and to revise the program's outdated goal of ensuring that all Americans had "plain old telephone service."

CWA Local 7470 President Mike Arnold testified at the forum in favor of changes that would subsidize and support the expansion of high-speed broadband, and called on the FCC to take action now.

Arnold and Local 7470 members work at Windstream Communications, which provides broadband services to about 89 percent of customers. "The remaining 11 percent are in rural areas beyond the reach of current technology, mainly those living just 3 1/2 miles outside the local telephone exchange office," Arnold said.

He stressed that farmers and rural businesses could operate more efficiently with access to high-speed broadband. Further, "Children in rural areas should have the same opportunities that children in urban areas have," he said. "Doesn't everyone deserve the same education opportunities?"