Recently in consumer action Category

Leaders of the nation's consumer and public interest organizations want the heads of the wireless industry to immediately suspend charging early termination fees (ETF's) on any subscriber who loses a job.

Due to high unemployment rates, consumer and public interest leaders, in a letter to the wireless industry, urged the wireless industry to take the pro-consumer step of allowing subscribers who have become unemployed to cancel their service contracts without incurring penalties that could add to their financial burdens.
The letter was signed by Consumer Action, the Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition, Media Access Project and the National Consumers League.

ETF's vary by carrier but can cost consumers upwards of $150 per line of service. For consumers on multiple-line "family" plans, being unable to pay for a service plan can threaten them with ETF's of several hundred dollars or more.

The consumer and public interest leaders noted that wireless devices can be essential links for unemployed and underemployed to their support networks and prospective employers. As such, they further urged the wireless industry leaders to allow subscribers who request it to migrate from unaffordable service plans to plans with lower monthly service fees or prepaid plans, again without incurring ETF's.

A study sponsored by utility-watch-dog group Utility Consumers' Action Network, and conducted by auditors with Teletruth, the New Networks Institute, and LTC Consulting found that phone bills are more than expensive. The study of 703 consumers found that many San Diego consumers are paying far more for long-distance service and wireless service than they -- and regulators -- believe.

The consultants reported that "Unlike Federal regulators, who have evaluated phone bills with number-fiddling and third-party data, we used true cost accounting to examine every charge for more than 700 San Diego phone bills."

Finding in the report include:

• Deregulation has increased phone costs for low- income families. For some local services, these increases were as high as 346%.
• For the past 8 years, the FCC has used deceptive statistics from questionable third-party sources to create an illusion of lower phone prices and regulatory success.
• Long distance charges have increased, on average, to 55¢ a minute. Only about 8% of land line customers pay less than 10 cents per minute for long-distance calls. The majority pay well over 10 cents per minute, with 20% of people paying more than 50 cents per minute and 10% paying more than $1.
• The average cost for a wireless call is $3.02 per minute. Wireless costs have increased for many customers because customers are only utilizing 32% of their plan allowance
• 90% of all AT&T and Verizon phone bills are improperly taxed.
• There is no meaningful phone competition for San Diego households.

A Chicago Sun Times reader wrote he needed help from "The Fixer" with a really big cell phone wireless card bill. The traveler received $28,067.31 wireless phone bill after a recent trip for watching a Bears game on his laptop computer via a wireless card.

He was in Miami on Nov. 2, getting ready to go on a Caribbean cruise. He wanted to catch the Bears game before he left port. He had a Slingbox connected to his cable box, that fed into his modem. It sent his cable signal through the Internet to his computer via an AT&T wireless card.

Hew was in the Port of Miami at 1 p.m. Florida time when Bears game started and the ship did not leaveMiami until 4 p.m.  He watched the game for 2½ hours. Then he shut down the computer and cell phone,.

When he got his phone/wireless card bill, which is usually about $220, it was for $28,067.31.

He called AT&T and told them there was either a mistake or fraud and asked them to  please take this off the bill.  They told him that the bill was correct and somehow he was charged international rates for Internet use, which wass 2 cents per kb. That came out to $27,788.93.

He explained that he was not at sea but in port and his cell phone was still working without roaming, and that he should have still been on his unlimited wireless card. He was  in contact with five or six different people at AT&T, and the best they could do, even though he was not at fault, is to bring the bill down to $6,000.

The Fixer replied "Good thing you had the proof that you were still in port during the game. Team Fixer pleaded your case with AT&T, and the good news is they've agreed to credit your bill for $27,776.66."

The GSMA and 17 mobile operators and manufacturers announced that they are committed to a cross-industry standard for a universal charger for new mobile phones. What this means is that one charger would work will all the phones.

The move should result in approximately per cent reduction in standby energy consumption, the possible elimination of up to 51,000 tons of duplicate chargers and reduction of customer frustration..

The target date to create the universal charging solution (UCS) is  2012.  It will use Micro-USB as the common universal charging interface. The group agreed that by the 1^st January 2012, the majority of all new mobile phone models available will support a universal charging connector and the majority of chargers shipped will meet the high efficiency targets set out by the OMTP (Open Mobile Terminal Platform), the industry body who developed the technical requirements behind UCS.

The initial group of companies who have joined the GSMA's UCS initiative include 3 Group, AT&T, KTF, LG, mobilkom austria, Motorola, Nokia, Orange, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor, Telstra, T-Mobile and Vodafone - some of the world's largest mobile operators and manufacturers who together are committed to making a universal charging solution a reality up to 2012 and beyond.

TracFone Wireless, announced the launch of SafeLink Wireless in most of Georgia. SafeLink Wireless will serve as the company’s distribution of Lifeline - a U.S. government supported program for income eligible households that ensures telephone service is available and affordable for eligible low-income households.

The SafeLink Wireless service will provide eligible low-income households a free cell phone, mobile access to emergency services and free 68 minutes of air time, monthly, for one year. The cell phone offers in-demand features: voicemail, text, call waiting, international calling to over 60 destinations and caller ID.

<p>
  "Nearly half a million households in Georgia qualify for the Lifeline 
  services - offering these participants the opportunity to have the same 
  access and privileges many individuals take for granted when it comes to 
  using cell phones," said Jose Fuentes, Director of Government Relations 
  for TracFone. <br /></p><span class="bwunderlinestyle"></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">To learn more about

SafeLink Wireless, including eligibility requirements, please call 1-800-977-3768 or visit safelinkwireless.com. You can get refill your Tracfone Wireless Airtime here.

The Center for Digital Democracy and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group plan to petition the Federal Trade Commission. They want the FTC to investigate mobile advertising that  compromises user privacy.

The groups also contend that mobile ad firms don't fully disclose the extent of the information they collect on consumers and their behaviors.

In their current complaint, CDD and USPIRG request that the FTC:

• Require True Notice and Disclosure of data collection on mobile devices.
  
• Redefine "Unfair and Deceptive" practices in the mobile marketing arena.
  
• Review Industry Self-Regulation.
• Protect Youth from Unfair or Deceptive Practices on mobile devices

"They know your location, they're profiling you and categorizing you," said Center for Digital Democracy executive director Jeffrey Chester. "It's disturbing."

In response to consumer feedback, Intelius Inc., aannounced that it has discontinued its cell phone directory service. Intelius launched the cell phone directory in recent months as a test for the first-of-its-kind resource.

“As a company, we have strived to be at the forefront of innovation,” said Liz Murray, Communications Manager at Intelius. “We realize that in this instance we may have been ahead of our time. Wireless carriers attempted to develop a similar product a few years ago and found the market wasn’t ready; it’s clear that the market is still not ready. We always listen carefully to our customers, which is why we recently discontinued our cell phone directory.”

Verizon called for the stopping of the service last week.

In keeping with the company’s mission to empower consumers with information services for personal and family safety, Intelius continues to offer a Cell Phone Caller ID service (reverse search). This service works much like the caller ID consumers are familiar with on their home phones. Cell Phone Caller ID allows a customer to input a number that has shown up on their home or cell phone into the Intelius site and receive basic information associated with that number. Consumers can use this service to protect themselves from harassing calls, hang-ups, pranks, or mystery calls into their children or other family members.

HTCClassAction.org a newly launched consumer website claims that newer HTC smartphones are slower than previous models due to poor drawing drivers. They urge owners to contact HTC and complain. Although the site has gotten no official response from HTC, HTC is requesting information from owners. After press coverage, an HTC employer says that there is an internal apology email circulating that says that a fix in the works.