FCC offers ‘simple’ ‘tips’ for avoiding pesky early termination fees
The government is just about the last place we'd look for helpful pointers on much of anything, much less when shopping for a new phone -- but that didn't stop the FCC's Consumer Task Force from whipping up a PDF of things you can to do prevent yourself from getting burned with a multi-hundred dollar early termination fee when buying the handset of your wildest dreams. There's nothing in here that isn't obvious to a seasoned phone buyer -- buy the phone at full price instead, ask about a trial period, look into proration, and so on -- but it goes without saying that these are the kinds of tidbits average consumers should know before setting foot in the store.
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: consumers, dreams, etf, fcc, feds, fee, pdf, phone-at-full, pointers, stink-it-made, takes-advantage, tidbits-average, trial, wildest
Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Google all respond to FCC’s ETF inquiry
All of the players roped into the FCC's early termination fee inquiry -- T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T, Verizon, and Google -- have met the Fed's February 23 deadline for responding, and needless to say, you could destroy a small forest with the amount of paperwork that's been sent back to Washington. The majority of the inquiry focused on carriers' ETF pricing structure and whether there are different ETFs involved based on the device a customer chooses, and the subtleties in the differences between answers from different carriers are pretty fascinating. T-Mobile seems resolute that a single $200 ETF is the way to go and emphasizes that its customers can avoid the fee altogether by going with an Even More Plus plan, while Sprint says that it "continue[s] to evaluate the market" with regard to a multiple ETF setup.
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: avoid-the-fee, early termination fee, earlyterminationfee, entry, etf, fcc, fee, remind-the-fcc, surprising-move, verizon, verizon-wireless, verizonwireless, vzw
Google’s Nexus One ‘equipment recovery fee’ slashed to $150, still a pain
So the good news here is that Google appears to have heard the cries for help, having taken a chainsaw to its brutal $350 "equipment recovery fee" that had been lumped on top of T-Mobile's $200 ETF for subsidized Nexus One contracts canceled in the first 120 days. The bad news, though, is that it still exists at all -- a hairy precedent for an industry being watched with eagle eyes by the FCC right now.
Categories: Mobile Phone, nexus one, Other Tags: contract, deliberate, equipment recovery fee, etf, fcc, heard-the-cries, mobile, more-expensive, recovery, still-exists, verizon
AT&T settles New Jersey ETF case for $18m
Hey, if you're a New Jersey AT&T subscriber and you paid a flat-rate ETF between January 1, 1998 and November 4, 2009, you've got a tiny bit of $18 million coming your way. That's the settlement amount AT&T's agreed to in this latest ETF class action -- as usual in these cases, it's far cheaper for AT&T to just throw out some cash than it is to fully litigate this thing, especially with the FCC breathing down its neck .
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: att, class action, entry, etf, jersey, lawsuit, litigation, only-the-finest, pro-rated-ones, rate-the-etf, result, settlement, the-litigation, the-settlement
FCC extends deadline on Verizon’s ETF response, lets it enjoy the weekend
They're not exactly calling off the hounds, but the FCC's standing down just a wee bit in its hunt to get to the bottom of Verizon's astronomical new $350 "advanced device" early termination fee; the original deadline for the carrier's responses was yesterday, December 17, but instead, the FCC will now be checking its mailbox on Monday. Even in the most extreme outcome, it'd likely be months or years before the FCC would actually go from an inquiry to applying pressure on Verizon to lower the fee. In the meantime, though, failure to respond to the questionnaire will probably result in an entertaining series of strong verbal admonishments and -- if Genachowski's in a feisty mood -- perhaps a flurry of punishing blows to Verizon's torso and upper body.
Categories: Android, BlackBerry, htc, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: 18th-2009, device, engadget, etf, htc, inquiry, neutral, people, report, unverified, verizon, verizon-wireless, vzw
Midday Market Update: Mergers Enliven Wall Street | ETF Trends
Investors also appear to like the idea of a merger between Deutsche Telekom AG and France Telecom SA, which plan to combine their British mobile phone units, report Ieva M. Augstums and Tim Paradis for the Associated Press. ...
Categories: Mobile Phone, Phone Street Tags: advertising, energy, etf, etf-101, etf-trends, europe, latin-america, Mobile Phone, monthly-archives, press, trends, uso, video