Sunday, June 7, 2009

CWA: National Broadband Plan Must Include Public Hearings

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) issued its own recommendations for a national broadband plan. Key recommendations in the CWA filing include:

  • A series of public hearings in communities across the country that will help provide guidance for the national plan from a broad group of citizens, businesses and communities.


  • Benchmarks that are ambitious, but achievable, with an initial goal of 10 megabits per second downstream and 1 megabit per second upstream. CWA is calling for specific benchmarks to increase broadband speeds to the home over a six-year period.


  • Establish tax incentives that encourage private businesses to build out and upgrade universal, advanced networks. Encouraging and accelerating the deployment of these advanced networks is an extremely cost-effective policy.


  • Safeguard consumers and create quality jobs by requiring public reporting for deployment, actual speed, price and quality of service, and insisting that employers adhere to all labor laws and standards, including workers' rights to bargaining collectively and form a union.
http://www.cwa-union.org/fccbroadbandplan