Cell-phone service provider T-Mobile wants to become the third wireless company to get federal subsidies to expand coverage in Hawaii. Should a company recently cited by Human Rights Watch for discriminating against American workers in terms of labor rights be the recipient of taxpayer money?
Cell-phone service provider T-Mobile wants to become the third wireless company to get federal subsidies to expand coverage in Hawaii.
If approved by the state Public Utilities Commission, the company would be eligible for a slice of about $9 million a quarter provided to Sprint Nextel Corp. and Mobi PCS from the Universal Service Fund, a federal program initially designed to ensure that phone companies would extend land lines to customers in high-cost rural areas.
The program has since been expanded to allow cell-phone companies to collect a subsidy comparable to land-line companies to provide rural customers with competing services. Local rural wire-line communications company Sandwich Isles Communications Inc. receives about $6.6 million a quarter from the fund to provide wired phone and Internet services.
The Universal Service Fund has a long history in American telecom, dating back in one form or another to 1934. CWA has supported the USF because it advances the principle of universal service to American citizens. Witness the expansion of telephone service in rural area nation-wide in the last 75 years.
T-Mobile, however, seems to collect subsidies from public authorities. Research by Good Jobs First has shown that 16 different call centers received public subsidies from economic development authorities or state training funds.
Should a company recently citedby Human Rights Watch for discriminating against American workers in terms of labor rights be the recipient of taxpayer money?
Click herefor the full article from the Honolulu Star Advertiser.
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