Verizon Cable Deal Could End Competition

Allowing proposed multibillion-dollar airwave deals between Verizon Wireless and several cable operators could mean the end of a competitive telecommunications landscape, saddling consumers with higher prices and diminished choice, the largest union for telecoms workers told U.S. regulators.

Communications Workers of America has been a vociferous opponent of Verizon Wireless’s plan to buy about $3.9 billion worth of wireless airwaves from cable companies including Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O) and Time Warner Cable Inc (TWC.N).

The union met with Federal Communications Commission staff last Thursday and sent a 16-page filing to the agency late Monday detailing its worries over the deals that it has argued would create allies out of former rivals, to the detriment of consumers, Reuters reported.

Debbie Goldman, CWA’s telecommunications policy director, told Reuters that the alliance between the nation’s largest wireless carrier and the top cable companies would essentially end competition in the telecommunications arena.

“The detail of how it will do that is in these commercial agreements that are behind a firewall that the public cannot see,” Goldman said of the largely redacted documents submitted to the FCC for review by Verizon Wireless and the cable operators.